Memoirs of a Demon Named Frankie
by Kryten
Summary: Ch. 7! Secrets are revealed as Frankie and pals uncover the true origins of the Valix!
1. Rude Awakening

_Hey, everyone. This is my first Fosters' fic. I almost wasn't going to post it, since it seems a bit derivative of my other story _Rhondagenesis _(which has NOT been forgotten, BTW, I hope to have Book II, Chap. 7 up soon, but a friend of mine convinced me. I also have very little clue where this story is going... if anyone has idea, feel free to suggest them._

_Fosters' Home For Imaginary Friends was created by Craig McCracken as is owned by Time-Warner, I'm just messing around in their sandbox._

* * *

"...HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!"

"Awww... guys, you shouldn't have." Francis Louise "Frankie" Foster blew out the 23 candles on her cake. She'd almost forgotten today was the day, and was expecting the usual drudgery. So, the party had been a pleasant surprise.

"Well, the credit really goes to Mac here." Wilt, a tall, gangly, and almost supernaturally-polite creature, placed his one hand on the 8-year-old's shoulders. "He found out when your birthday was when the two of you were re-filing all those records that somehow wound up crumpled up and lying around the lobby."

The boy smiled. "It was nothing, really. You deserve it for everything that you put up with."

The lovely titian-haired young woman blushed. "I... I really don't know what to say."

Frankie's grandmother, Agatha, as lively today as she'd been in her youth, supplied the answer. "Say... LET'S PARTY!"

Several exhausting hours of dancing and party games later, it came time to open her gifts.

Mr. Herriman, the lagomorphic majordomo of the house, gave her a day-planner ("to prevent any further lollygaggery," he'd said; Frankie already had a 512-MB PDA but was too polite to point it out). Wilt bore an array of scented bath salts; Eduardo, the hulking-yet-lovable monster, a homemade beaded seat cushion; Coco, an odd, manic creature that seemed to be the illegitimate offspring of a duck, a palm tree, and a 747, had laid an egg that contained the massage chair she'd been coveting. Mac contributed a pint of homemade ice-cream containing Madame Fosters' own cookie dough.

Finally, Madame Foster handed over a tiny box. "Here... this is for keeping me young all these years."

She opened it.

"Grandma... these are the keys to your car."

"No, dear... they're the keys to _your _car."

"What? No... no, I can't accept this. it's very generous, but—"

"Generous nothin'", the elderly woman groused. "They revoked my license! You run over ONE priest, and all of a sudden they're on you like—never mind. You enjoy it."

Frankie sighed happily. "You guys... thanks."

"Wait!"

The new comment came from somewhere in the vicinity of her knees. She looked down; Bloo, Mac's imaginary friend, who resembled nothing as much as a bright blue gumdrop with eyes, was holding up a small, crudely wrapped package. "You haven't opened _my _gift yet."

Frankie eyed the package suspiciously. There was no telling what it was... Bloo was every bit as mischievous as Mac was well-behaved. "This isn't some kind of trick, is it?"

Bloo put on his most innocent expression. "Of COURSE not! I would never do something like THAT..."

Wincing, Frankie braced herself as she opened the package. Inside...

"Bloo... this is BEAUTIFUL!" She drew out a necklace sporting a pendant set with a large, glittering, flawless blue gem. "How on Earth did you afford something like this?"

"Oh, I have my ways..."

* * *

_Six hours ago_

"Criminy... at this rate, I'll NEVER find a present for Frankie!" Bloo slid around the corner, looking for someplace to shop... someplace he could afford.

"Okay, maybe I shouldnt've spent nearly all the money on candy. But how often do jellybeans go on sale like that?"

Oh well... somewhere in this city, there HAD to be a place that sold impossibly cheap jewelry...

"Get your impossibly cheap jewelry!"

"Wow. Now that's service."

Bloo slid toward the owner of the voice, a seedy looking man running a kiosk full of jewelry. A banner, reading "GREGOR'S SUSPICIOUSLY CHEAP JEWELRY", was spread across the top.

"How may I help you, strange blue jello man?" the owner asked in an un-recognizable European accent.

"Yeah... I'm in the market for something in my price range, which comes to about fifty cents."

"Ah, yes... fifty cents. That is coincidentally the price for anything I have."

"Wow, that's really convenient! Bloo scanned the table, his eyes alighting on a glittering blue pendant. "How about that one?"

"Ah, you desire the Cursed Pendant of Transformation?"

"This thing's cursed?"

"Of course not. It absolutely, positively will not permanently transform whoever wears it overnight into a strange and powerful creature. Why would you even suggest such a thing?"

"Fine," Bloo said. "You don't need to give me the hard sell, just fork it over!"

The man accepted his money and handed over the pendant. "Thank you very much, it was nice knowing you!"

* * *

"The details are not important. Try it on!"

She did. "Nice."

"And it's blue. So whenever you look at it, you can think of me!"

"...well, it's still pretty."

She wore it all night, even to bed. It was if she couldn't part with it.

* * *

Morning...

Frankie was woken by a harsh noise from her nighttable clock-radio.

"Great... this is so NOT what I need."

Slowly, she slid out of bed, rubbing her eyes. She stretched, and made her way to the bathroom.

She lathered up her face and washed it off, examining her face in the mirror.

Something was off...

It couldn't be her fur... or her horns... or her eyes, all three seemed okay...

She spat out the mouthful of mouthwash she had in her mouth in surprise.

She began the examination, taking in every detail.

Blue fur, accented by black tiger-stripes, covered nearly every inch of her body, except for her face, hands, throat, and belly. There, her fur was white. Her hands had four fingers each, with retractable claws, her feet were now cloven hooves. Her hair had become a long, bubble-gum-pink mane. She had a large pair of feathered wings, pink to match her hair. Three tails, long, flexible, and each tipped with a silky pink tuft, grew from her rear. Her chest now sported three, count 'em, three breasts, and her belly now had a kangaroo-like pouch. Her face was fox-like, with large pointed furry ears, a short muzzle with fangs, a shiny black nose, whiskers, and three green eyes with slit pupils. A pair of graceful, curvy horns adorned her head.

She stared for a moment, entranced by the impossible creature staring back at her.

Then she screamed.

* * *

"My word! It appears play most foul is occurring in this very house!" Herriman hopped towards the source of the scream. "To arms, fellow figments!"

A group of imaginary friends joined the rabbit, including Wilt, Igor (a large green troll) and the huge blocky creature Red.

"Bad people hurt someone?" questioned the latter.

"It would appear so," Herriman said. "From the sound of that scream, it seems someone succumbed to a most gruesome fate! Disaster may be averted if we-"

A second scream issued. "It's coming from Frankie's room!" shouted the gangliest of the group.

They all barged in, expecting to find a gruesome display.

Instead, they found one of the strangest, most beautiful Imaginary Friends ever seen. She resembled a cross between a tigress, a fox, and a gazelle, with wings, and possessing three each of eyes, tails, and breasts. And her eyes were currently locked on her reflection, her mouth wide open and preparing for another scream.

Always the proper one, Herriman cleared his throat. "Er, ma'am, it appears there has been some confusion. We were under the impression that you had been the victim of some misfortune. Nevertheless, I must ask that you cease this disruption immediately and vacate the premises, as this is a private residen-"

The creature seemed to notice them for the first time. "No! Get away from me!" she screamed, pulling the covers off the bed and throwing them over herself.

There was something about the voice...

"...Frankie?" asked Wilt.

She poked her changed head out. "Not anymore..." and dissolved into sobs.

* * *

It was shaping up to be a good day for Mac... a teachers' conference had cut the day short, leading to a 1PM dismissal for the school... which meant more time to spend at his favorite place in the world.

He arrived at the enormous gothic mansion fifteen minutes later. Oddly, it wasn't Frankie who answered the door, but Mr. Herriman. Oddly, and disappointingly... Mac was still nursing a crush on the redheaded caretaker; these days, he came to see Frankie almost as much as he did to see Bloo.

"Greetings, Master Mac," the rabbit majordomo said. "I see you're rather early today."

"Hi, Mr. Herriman, I-"

A blue form tackled him, from seemingly out of nowhere. "Mac! Buddy! You're early!"

Mac rubbed his sore rear... Bloo clearly loved him, but was definitely way too enthusiastic... either that or he'd been reading old "Calvin and Hobbes" strips.

"Hi, Bloo... lemme guess, you've been working out?"

"No, but I _have _been eating right, watching the carbs and saturated fats... you only have one you, y'know. I'm on a strict frosting diet."

"Bloo, frosting is FULL of carbs and saturated fats."

"I know," answered the figment with the world-weary air of someone explaining things to a very stupid person. "I said I was WATCHING my carbs and saturated fats. Then I eat them."

Mac groaned. "So, where's Frankie, Mr. Herriman?"

"Regrettably, Miss Francis will not be performing her duties today, as she is, er, somewhat under-the weather."

"Oh... can I go say hi to her?"

"Er... that will, ah, not be necessary, Master Mac," the bunny stammered. "She's, er, that is, she requires her rest, and should not be disturbed..."

"I won't be long, I just want to say hi!" Mac took off, sprinting down the hallway.

"MASTER MAC!" Mr. Herriman called as he bounded after him, "I must request that you NOT run in the hallways! Safety is as safety does! We are NOT insured, Master Mac!"

Mac continued to lead the rabbit on a chase through the labyrinthine hallways and stairwells of the mansion, until the exhausted lagomorph finally gave up, unable to hop any further.

Finally, Mac arrived at Frankie's apartment. Remembering that Frankie was supposed to be resting, he knocked softly on the door.

"Frankie?" he asked, listening for an answer.

"Mac?" answered a soft voice inside.

"Yes! It's Mac!" he answered. "Can I come in?"

"Please... don't... I don't want anyone to see me right now..." She sounded as though she'd been crying. _Gosh... it must be something really bad, _thought the child. _Measles, or smallpox, or something. She must be covered with icky sores... _

"It's okay, Frankie... I don't care what you look like. I just wanna see my friend, okay?"

There was a pause, and the sound of her blankets rustling. "Okay," she answered. "Come in."

Mac opened the door, peering into the room. Frankie was nowhere to be seen... however, a large lump under the covers revealed her presence.

"That bad, huh..."

"I can never leave my room again," answered the lump. "I'm hideous."

"Gee, Frankie... don't you think you're exaggerating?"

"No, Mac... I'm not."

Mac began to walk around the bed. "Sure, maybe it's bad now. But eventually it'll go away and..." He paused. Something was not right...

Then he saw it, sticking out of the covers. It was long, blue, and fuzzy, and had some kind of pink tassel at the end. His curiosity overcame him, and he reached out to touch the strange object.

"Eek!" screamed the lump. The protrusion was quickly retracted, but Mac realized something in the brief instant that he touched it; the thing was alive, and it was a part of Frankie.

"Frankie... this isn't just a cold, is it."

"No," she admitted. "I've... there's been changes, and... Mac... I'm not _human _anymore. I'm a... I don't even know WHAT I am... all I know is that it's not anything that's ever existed."

"Can I see?"

"No! I'm too ugly!"

Mac chuckled. "Frankie, have you seen some of the creatures in this house? There's no WAY you could be as ugly as Monsieur Revolto or Ugly Doris or Barfy McThrow-Up."

"You'll freak..."

"Frankie... I've looked at DUCHESS without retching. Are you telling me you're worse than that?"

A pause...

"All right."

Slowly, a head worked its way out of the fabric cocoon. The azure-furred, triple-eyed, rose-haired woman braced for the scream of terror.

Instead... she got laughter.

"THAT'S what worried you?" Mac gasped out in between giggle fits. "THAT'S why you're hiding?"

"Stop laughing! This is serious! Look at me!"

Mac managed to stifle his giggles. "Frankie... I think I can safely say that you're NOT ugly."

"But... look! I have horns!"

"So? Eduardo has horns, and he couldn't scare a paranoid chicken."

"I have three eyes!"

"So do half the friends in this house. Face it, Frankie... you'll just have to accept that you're not a monster. Now... c'mon out from under there."

"I, uh, I can't." said Frankie. "I'm naked. But... I guess you can't really see anything anyway..."

After a moment, she removed the covers.

_Wow, _thought the boy. _She's beautiful. _

From her cloven hooves, to her trio of long tails, to her fluffy pink wings, to—well, he wasn't going to go into the area that his doltish brother Terrence referred to as "the boobies" – to her horned crown, Frankie remained very much the most beautiful female he had ever seen, though her girl-next-door beauty had given way to an exotic, otherworldly beauty.

"You... you really think that?" asked the vision.

"Uh... I, uh, I didn't say anything..." stammered Mac.

"I know," she answered. "You thought it. I can hear thoughts, Mac. Not the Friends' thoughts, but I can hear yours." Her paw, the one that wasn't blocking her bosom from view, touched his cheek lightly. "You're the sweetest, Mac. I wish there were more people like you."

Mac blushed deeply. "Well... I, uh... I try..."

A smile spread across Frankie's face for the first time since her change. "Oh, Mac... c'mere."

Her furry arms swept the little boy up into a hug, and for a few moments, at least, all was right with the world.

"Did you find anything yet, Frankie?"

Frankie's fingers danced across the keyboard, while one of her tails handled the mouse. "Nothing yet... just a bunch of sites that you really shouldn't know about yet."

Having finally somewhat come to grips with the fact that she _had_ changed, Frankie had turned her attention to trying to figure out exactly what it was that had happened to her. So far, her searches had only turned up some rather odd "furry" art.

"OK... let's try 'blue fur' plus 'stripes' plus 'hooves' plus 'horns' plus 'wings' plus 'three tails' plus 'three eyes' plus... gosh, what else could I be leaving out..."

"What about the necklace?"

"...necklace?"

"Yeah... the necklace Bloo gave you. You're still wearing it."

She looked down. "Ohmigosh, I forgot all about it! Do you think this thing's responsible?"

"Only one way to find out!" Mac leaned over and added "blue jewel" to the search string. Sure enough, this search finally turned up something useful.

"Tobin's Guide to Mystical Creatures," read the young mutate. "Sounds as likely as anything I'm gonna find."

A link took her to the site, where she was rewarded with an image that looked almost exactly like she did. "Bingo," she muttered.

Her eyes moved on to the text. All three widened in shock.

"'The Valix demon?' I'm a _demon?_ How can I be? Demons are awful, awful monsters! I don't wanna be a monster! I can't be a-"

"Frankie, calm down... maybe there's more. Keep reading."

"Okay... fine... maybe it'll tell me I'm destined to wipe out humanity or something." She groaned and read on.

_The Valix Demon: This breed of demon is rare in that it lacks the predisposition to cruelty and malevolence that other demon breeds possess. In fact, Valixes are reknowned for using their powers to help others in need. Even so, they often fall victim to so-called "demon hunters" who, in their ignorance, believe them to be evil. Very few existed, and the last was believed to have vanished off the mortal plane in the mid-11th century._

_Valixes are identified by their fur, which is generally in bright colors like blue, green, and pink. They hatch from eggs, and newborns are mostly female, with about one in four born male. Valixes are born with wings and one tail; they grow two additional tails as they mature. They possess cloven hooves, clawed hands, and large canine teeth. They possess three eyes, enabling them to see beyond the natural spectrum. Mature Valixes grow horns, and adult females possess three breasts and a sealable pouch for carrying young after they hatch._

"See, Frankie? You're a NICE demon."

"That must explain why I don't feel like laying waste to society," replied Frankie. "But I don't understand... if there aren't any of these things left, why am I one?"

"Look, there's more..."

_In the late 5th century, it is believed that one Valix demon was captured by the sorcerer Merlin, who sought to use the creature for his own ends... when she refused, the wizard imprisoned her soul in an amulet. It is believed that she will remain sealed in the amulet until it is worn by one whose kindness equals her own...at this point, she will expire, passing on her form and powers to the wearer. _

"So it IS the amulet that did this!" exclaimed Frankie. I bet if I take it off, I'll go back to normal!" She yanked the amulet off, only to discover that her new form remained unchanged.

"It says here that once the change occurs, it's permanent, and can never be reversed, except for one case... if the amulet is destroyed."

"Great!" exclaimed Frankie. "I'm gonna go find a hammer!" she continued, hurrying off.

"'_However, this will also result in the death of the wearer...' _Oh no! Frankie!" Mac ran off after her, as fast as his little legs could carry him.

_To be continued, maybe._


	2. Nothing to Sneeze At

_MysticSistaKitsune: All right, all right, I won't! Sheesh!_

_Gojan, Sydnee: Thanks! I'm glad you like it!_

_Barry: OK, I'm continuing... camn't disappoint you! Don't wory, we'll be seeing plenty of comedy along with the angst you'd expect from a girl who's suddenly found herself another species._

Frankie's Birthday Surprise:

Part 2: Nothing to Sneeze At

_Somewhere in this stupid house, there has to be a hammer._

Frankie roamed the endless hallways of Foster's, looking for a hammer, a mallet, something, ANYTHING capable of smashing the blue, sparkling millstone around her neck, the thing that had transformed her into this new, bizarre form..

It still shocked her, every time she passed a mirror, to see that three-eyed, horned, vulpine face staring back at her, attached to that alien body. Even walking felt wrong... her legs bent funny, and she could barely feel the floor through her hooves.

Well, it'd all be over once she found a way to destroy the gem. She'd be able to go on with her normal life, and all this would be nothing more than a funny story she'd tell her grandkids someday.

* * *

For the second time that day, Mr. Herriman, chief financial and organizational officer of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends and Chair-Rabbit Emeritus of the Fun-Bunny Council, found himself nearly run down by an eight-year-old torpedo.

"I say, Master Mac!" he called after the youngster, "I must again stress that there is to be no running in the-"

"Frankie's gonna KILL herself!" shouted Mac as he darted down the hall.

"What? She intends to... oh, heavens! Er, ah, carry on, then!" sputtered the rabbit.

* * *

"Finally!" sighed Frankie as she located the workshop. This house seemed to get more labyrinthine every day; Frankie often wondered if the house itself was an imaginary friend that could rearrange itself according to its own whim. At long last, though, she'd found what she was looking for.

She hefted a ball-peen. She had no idea how durable the gem was, but the tool she now held in her paw would at least crack the thing, she was sure of it.

Placing the gem on the worktable, Frankie raised the hammer...

"Frankie, stop!" shouted Mac as he finally caught up. "If you destroy it, you're gonna die!"

For a moment, she stood there, hammer raised, frozen.

Lowering the hammer would end this nightmare. It would end EVERYTHING.

If she stopped now, she'd be trapped in this freakish body, for the rest of her life. And as a demon, who knew how long that would be.

In that instant... in that eternity that lasted mere seconds... Frankie realized something.

She wanted to live.

Her life would almost certainly be fraught with hardship. Being able to function in society would be next to impossible.

And yet, she wanted to live.

She'd be feared, hated, hounded, simply because of what she was. The odds against ever finding love were astronomical.

And still, she wanted to live.

Because deep inside, she knew that things wouldn't be miserable forever. There would be happiness in her future, there would be laughter, there would be love, there would be hope...

Slowly, she set the hammer down and re-donned the necklace.

Mac exhaled in relief: "I knew you couldn't do it," he said with a grin.

"C'mon," the hirsute girl said, "I need someone to talk to. And ice cream."

* * *

Mac watched Frankie polish off the cookie-dough ice cream he'd given her a day earlier. "Feel better?" he asked.

"A little," she said, smiling. "It's mostly the company."

"Uh... can I ask you something?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"How does it feel?"

"Very, very weird. I feel like I've been wrapped in wall-to-wall carpet. My feet feel like I'm walking on rubber stilts. My wings are like these two deformed arms coming out of my back with fans stuck to them. My butt feels like it has three really long, really flexible fingers. With beards. It all feels so alien. I really don't know if I'll ever be able to feel comfortable in this shape."

"Can I ask another question?"

"Of course."

"When'd you get dressed?"

Frankie looked down. Her familiar skirt and baby tee (the latter a bit stretched out thanks to the fifty-percent increase in her chest size) were back, although she couldn't remember how. "I'm not sure," she said. "I remember wanting to be dressed, but I don't remember actually putting any clothing on. I guess they just kinda appeared."

"See?" Mac said. "You've got amazing powers!"

"Great... I'm sure amazing power over wardrobe issues will totally make up for not being human any more."

"The website said you had 'special powers'. That's probably only one of them. I mean... you could probably even be..."

"Mac... please... I don't wanna hear it..."

"...a superhero!"

"I said I didn't wanna hear it! Mac, I know you want me to look at the bright side, but let's face it... any chance I have of ever having any kind of life is pretty much over."

She gave him a tiny kiss on the forehead. "You're sweet... but, it'll take more than sweetness to cheer me up."

* * *

Mac watched as she walked off.

_I wish I could make her somehow realize that this isn't the worst that can happen... I mean, she shouldn't just give up because she's different! I bet people'd still like her even if she's a blue tiger... fox... antelope thing. I mean, it's not like she'd even be the weirdest thing on the streets._

_Why can't she just accept herself as she is?_

Mac would probably have remained lost in thought, had not a small, squishy blue creature tackled him from behind.

"Hey, Mac-a-roni! What's up?"

Mac sighed. "Hey, Bloo. I'm kinda worried about Frankie."

"Yeah, me too... I mean, twenty-two and no boyfriend? You know what the odds are of her getting married now? Seriously... do you? 'Cause I have no idea."

"Don't joke, Bloo. Have you seen what that necklace you got her did to her?"

"Drat! I KNEW that couldn't have been real gold!"

"No... it kinda... changed her."

"Changed her, like... changed her outlook on life?"

"No, changed her like made her grow fur, wings, tails, horns, an extra eye, claws, hooves..."

"Wow, really?" the blobby manifestation exclaimed, excited. "I knew I got a bargain, but that thing makes MUTANTS? That is so COOL! I have gotta see this!" And Bloo charged off, running as fast as his nonexistent legs could carry him.

* * *

_Chop chop chop chop_

Frankie lost herself in the staccato rhythm of the knife as it chopped carrots. There was a certain zen to kitchen prep... it was something that one could focus on, freeing yourself from the troubles of her life.

Vegetables finished, it was now time to prepare the dough. Frankie reached for the sack, located on the top shelf (Wilt must've been the last to use it, she thought), using a stool when it proved to be too high.

She reached for the sack, her hooves precariously balanced on the rickety stool. _What on Earth convinced me this was a good idea? _she thought, desperately flailing her arms and wings to keep balance. One distraction and she'd probably fall and bring the whole cabinet down with her—

"FRANKIE!" came a high-pitched voice, right behind her.

True enough, the startled young demon lost her footing and came crashing down... the flour sack in her hand spilled all over, billowing up into a white cloud that filled the room.

"Oops," the small blue creature mumbled.

"OOPS!" yelled the flour-covered Frankie. "Bloo, I oughta..." She stopped and froze as some of the flour got inhaled into her nostrils, causing her to sneeze.

"...Gesundheit?" replied Bloo.

Frankie looked around. Something wasn't quite right...

Then it hit her.

The wallpaper had changed from pink to yellow.

Bloo had noticed it too. "Boy, that was some sneeze," he said admiringly. "I'm kinda surprised everything didn't turn green.

"This isn't a j- ah-ah... ahchoo!"

* * *

In the den, Wilt and Eduardo were catching the latest episode of "The Loved and the Loveless."

"Ehh... Senor Wilt?" asked the violet behemoth.

"Yes?"

"Por que everything in the room suddenly turn upside-down?"

Wilt shrugged. "That's a good question. Maybe we should—"

"_You'll never get away with this!"_

"You hear that? He never get away with this!"

"Ooh, this one's good!" Wilt said as he turned his attention back to the TV."

* * *

With each sneeze, something bizarre happened. Sneeze three completely rearranged the hedge maze; sneeze four made it rain jellybeans indoors; sneeze five turned the billiard balls in the game room into live bats; and sneeze six turned Mr. Herriman into the world's most dignified aardvark.

"This is an outrage!" bellowed Herriman. "Why, never in all my years has such nonsense occurred!" He hopped through the endless hallways of the house, still mentally a rabbit though technically something else. Chaos seemed to be reigning... random objects were sprouting wings and flying around; doors were rearranging themselves; one room was neck-deep in what appeared to be lemon-lime soda.

"I demand to know what is occurring here!" the rabbit-cum-aardvark yelled to no one in particular.

"Um... I think it was me, Mr. Herriman," came a voice from above. He looked up to see Frankie, held aloft by her wings, looking apologetic.

The ex-rabbit's good eye opened wide. "Are you saying that all this absurdity is YOUR doing?"

Frankie nodded. "Every time I sneeze, something... bizarre happens. And I'm not sure how to undo it."

"Well... I suggest you figure that out immediately, or your continued employment at this institution will be terminated forthwith." He harrumphed. "An aardvark, of all things... how humiliating. I daresay I would have made an excellent moose, or perhaps a hamster... but an aardvark?"

"Look... I'll try, but I don't even know where to start! I've been like this for all of twelve hours... now I've got to deal with learning advanced reality-warping, too?"

"Yes... and I suggest you get started immediately," he said as he swam away.

_Great, _thought Frankie, _I don't even know how I did this... how do I undo it? It can't be just as simple as willing it... like, I couldn't just..._

_...well, why not? _

She concentrated, focusing her mind entirely on dispersing the soda. As if by magic (actually, it WAS magic, wasn't it?) the liquid vanished into the ether.

"Wow. It actually worked."

One by one, she undid each of the effects of her sneezes, ending with returning Herriman to his rabbit form.

"Ah... yes, that's much better. The prospect of having to root around in the soil for my dinner did not appeal." He smoothed down his waistcoat, pleased. "Now, as for you..."

But Frankie was already gone.

* * *

_I wish I was me... I wish I was me... _Frankie, eyes clamped shut tightly, concentrated as hard as she could on this one thought.

She opened her eyes and looked in the mirror. Three emerald orbs, set in a face of blue, white, and black, looked back at her.

She slumped on the bed. "I guess it would've been too easy if I could just wish myself back to normal." She sighed, deeply. "I can twist and pull the fabric of reality like taffy with a sneeze, but I can't make myself human. This really, really sucks."

There was a knock at the door. "Go away," she muttered. "I'm not really in the mood to see anyone after what happened."

"Not even your dear old grandma?" replied a sweet voice. "Well, tough. I'm comin' in anyway."

_Stupid, cheapskate Herriman... can't even part with the money to put locks on the doors... _

Madame foster hobbled in slowly. "Came as soon as I heard about what happened this morning," she said. "Of course, it took me a while to actually get here... to this day, I don't know WHY I had them put in so many staircases. Now then, let's have a look at you." She scrutinized her granddaughter. "Hmm... hooves, wings, multiple tails, third eye, horns... yep. You're a Valix all right."

"Mac told you, huh?"

"Nope, figured it out myself. I've got a Masters' in obscure mythology, you know. Never know what kind of creatures they'll bring in, after all... I had to bone up."

"So... what do you know about Valixes?"

"Well, for starters, they're extremely powerful sorcerers. They're also very strong, more-or-less immortal, and among the most benevolent creatures alive."

Frankie groaned. "I already know all that! Do you know if they're able to make themselves human?"

"No, I never heard anything like that. I guess you could always pass yourself off as an imaginary friend – now, there's an idea! You'd make a wonderful guardian friend with your powers. And you're cuddly enough to be adopted right away!"

"What!"

"Oh, lighten up, dearie. I'm joking."

"Well, it's not funny."

"Huh. I thought Valixes were known for their sense of humor. At least one king kept a Valix as a jester. But, I digress. Look... it may feel hopeless at the moment, but you'll get used to the change eventually."

"I don't WANT to get used to the change. I want to be normal."

"Normal? Look around you, dear. Normal is overrated. I wouldn't mind being like you one bit."

"That's because you're not living it right now!"

"Hmmph. I can see there's no talking to you. Well, when you're ready to be yourself again, come on out." With that, she turned and hobbled out.

"I AM ready..." mumbled Frankie morosely. "But I can't be me."

* * *

_Well... this chapter ends on a downer, I guess..._

_Next chapter, we'll be hitting fast forward, as we take a look at Frankie's diary, and watch her adapt to her new status quo. Will she get back that lost perkiness of hers? Stay tuned!_


	3. Dear Diary

_Wow! This is my longest chapter yet, I hope everyone likes it!_

_Cyburn: Yeah, Mac's sweet that way, isn't he?_

_Semine: Gracias!_

_That little voice: Yep, that's our Bloo._

_Barry: Well, as we can see from this chapter, it's gonna take a lot longer for Frankie to get adjusted to her change, and she's not out of the woods yet... and yeah, Frankie and Mac have a bond... though I don't know about romantic; I think Frankie sees Mac more as the little brother she never had. And, yeah... if Madame Foster had gotten the necklace, she'd be too busy having fun to get all angsty._

_Mario: Yeah, Frankie isn't aging, and Mac is, so one day they'd be the same, but is Mac really going to wait fourteen years for her? And besides, unless Frankie can turn someone else into a Valix (and she can't, at least not for more than a couple of hours) Mac's gonna go right on aging. So that might not work out as well as you'd think._

_Tori, DarkWolf: Sorry it took so long, I'm not a very fast writer, but as you can see, this chapter's twice as long as the last one!_

_Inu: Well, like I said above, Frankie can't turn Mac into a Valix, at least not permanently._

_That's not to say it can't happen, though... -grin-_

Chapter 3: Dear Diary

_May 13, 2005_

_I've decided to start this journal to give myself an outlet for my emotions. It's not fair to take them out on the Friends. Well... maybe it's fair to take them out on one friend in particular._

_Oh, where do I start?_

_It's been about a week since this all started. It was my birthday, and Bloo gave me this harmless-looking pendant._

_Harmless. Yeah, right. I'm typing with clawed fingers and mousing with one of my three tails. Harmless my Aunt Fanny, pardon my French. _

_The pendant changed me into a freak. An utter, complete, unnatural freak. I'm covered from head to toe... excuse me, hoof... in blue, black, and white fur. I've got pink hair and wings to match. I have three eyes. I have three breasts. I've got freakin' horns, for pity's sake. There isn't a single way that I'm not a freak. And I'm stuck this way for the rest of my potentially endless life. _

"_Look on the bright side," everyone says. What bright side? That I'm the only one of my species? That I can never leave the house as long as I live? That I had to get my new shoes at the unicorn stables? That I look into the mirror and I can't find me anymore?_

_I've got powers, they say. What's the point of having them if I can't have a life? So my chores have become a little easier now that I'm stronger and faster. Whoopee, I have more free time to be lonely and depressed. _

_Maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe I shouldn't waste my time on this.

* * *

_

_May 15, 2005_

_Okay, trying this again..._

_Gaaaah._

_Nothing to write. _

_I hate my life._

_I hate this diary._

_I'm done.

* * *

_

_May 16, 2005_

_Well, I thought I'd never do this again, so, why am I doing this again?_

_It's all thanks to a talk I had with Wilt, last night._

_He was helping me clean up the kitchen after cooking dinner – yeah, I'm still doing my job. It's pretty much all I have left now at this point. Anyway, he was drying the dishes while I was washing, and I noticed that he had to hold the dishes with his teeth in order to dry them..._

"How do you do it, Wilt?"

"Well, basically, I use circular strokes. That way, it's much easier to avoid leaving streaks."

"No. I mean... how do you stay so happy all the time, with your... you know..."

"It's okay, Frankie, you can say it. I'm missing an arm. No big."

"But... it _is_ a big! I mean, if I'd had that kind of thing happen to me..."

"It happened a long time ago... I'm pretty used to it by now."

Frankie sighed deeply: "I guess I must look like a big crybaby... I mean, it's not like I lost a piece of myself."

"Frankie, did I ever tell you how I lost my arm?"

Frankie's ears perked up. Wilt NEVER talked about his arm. "How?"

"Well, one day, my kid took me to the zoo. And he wandered into the alligator pit. I reached down to get him, and managed to pull him out of harm's way, but one of the alligators bit off my arm."

"Ohmigosh, that must've really hurt!"

"Not as much as losing my kid would have. And that little boy grew up to be Shaquille O'Neil."

"...really?"

"No, but it makes the story more interesting. The point is, sometimes life throws us a bad pass..." He spun a plate on his finger for emphasis. "But you can still go for the slam dunk."

_That really made me think. Yeah, being a demon isn't a picnic. But there are people out there a lot worse off than me._

_So, I'm gonna keep working on this diary. Who knows, maybe someday it'll be a best seller.

* * *

_

_May 17, 2005_

_Thought I'd use this entry to touch on some of the weirdness of my new body._

_Let's start with the fur. The stuff on my body is pretty short and soft. It's thicker over my chest, calves, and forearms. My hair, for contrast, is long, silky, and shocking pink. I've cut it into a version of my old style, but that pinkness... ugh. _

_My fingers are as long as they ever were, but instead of nails, they have these claws that fold out like switchblades. They're sharp enough to cut through a tin can and still slice a tomato afterwards. I have Ginsu fingers._

_My tails have some elasticity built into them. I can stretch them out to about three times their normal length. None of my other body parts can do that. The fur on their tips is exactly like the hair on my head, down to the color. The feathers on my wings also match._

_I have a pouch on my belly. Most of the time, it's closed and seamlessly blends into the rest of my abdomen, but I can open it when I need to. I've never really tried to see how much I can fit in it, but judging by the fact that it seems to seal and unseal magically, I wouldn't be surprised if I could stuff a pumpkin in there and not have it show._

_My hooves. Well, like I said, I had special shoes made for them by the same guy who makes the horseshoes down by the unicorn stable. They're surprisingly comfortable—sure they're nailed into my hooves, but I can't feel it. Hooves are really just oversized toenails._

_I hate my horns. They don't seem to have any real purpose. They're just there. My third eye, on the other hand, is actually pretty cool. When I close my other two, I can see a few seconds into the future. Of course, the downside to that is I have a third eye._

_I think that covers pretty much all of my major mutations. If I remember more, I'll tell you.

* * *

_

_June 7, 2005_

_Something happened today that really freaked me out._

_I was chopping vegetables for a salad (the bunny's all up in arms about everyone getting more fiber), and I guess I wasn't looking at what I was doing. The next thing I noticed, I had chopped off three of my fingers. Without even feeling it._

_That's right. I felt absolutely no pain slicing off a part of my own body._

_That's not all. Not only wasn't there any pain, there was no blood. I could actually see a cross-section of my fingers, but nothing was coming out of the blood vessels. And I'm still not up to the weirdest part._

_I could still control the fingers. It was as if they were actually still part of my body, just not attached. And I was actually able to just reattach them by sticking them back onto the stumps. There weren't even any scars._

_Up until now, I knew I wasn't normal, but I thought at least I functioned something like I used to. But now... I don't even know anymore._

_What AM I?

* * *

_

_June 29, 2005_

_Grandma got me an appointment with this xenobiologist that she knew from the University. She says I don't need any more surprises like the finger incident. _

_Part of me is really scared about what she'll find...

* * *

_

"Please remove your clothing, Ms. Foster, so we can begin?"

Frankie willed her clothes to vanish, and lied down on the examination table. They'd smuggled her on board the Fosters' bus when no one was looking and driven down to the university. Professor Dominguez, a serious-looking woman in her late fifties, had shown remarkable calm in the face of seeing a seven-foot-tall demon.

"Right," she said, "let's start by taking a blood sample." Using a syringe, she extracted some blood from her arm... or rather, tried to.

"That's odd... you don't seem to have any blood."

"No blood? How could I have no blood? I feel a heart beating inside me, what else could it possibly be pumping?"

"I have a theory... but we'll have to move on to the next stage to test it." She led Frankie to the X-Ray machine. Once Frankie was set properly, she began.

* * *

_Fascinating_, Frankie heard Dr. Dominguez think as she examined the X-rays.

"Do they tell you anything?" she asked.

"Quite a great deal, actually. The reason you don't have any blood is because your circulation is energy-based."

"...come again?"

"Your heart isn't pumping _blood... _it's pumping energy, feeding a steady stream of ionized oxygen to every part of your body."

"I see... " Frankie slumped. _I'm actually even less human than I thought I was. And what's next?_

Many tests followed... EKGs, MRIs, CATs, and an alphabet soup of other tests, some of which were still in the experimental stages.

Finally, the professor allowed Frankie to re-dress, while she went over the results.

"Hmm... looks like we have a basic idea of how you tick, but, well, some parts of you just defy explanation," she said.

"I really don't like the sound of that."

"Oh, it's nothing bad... in fact, you have some pretty fascinating systems. For instance, your cells seem to have a degree of independence... that's why your body parts can live if they're separated. You could lose an arm, a leg, a tail, a wing... in fact, I believe you might even be able to survive a beheading if you get it reattached right away."

Frankie's jaw hung open as Prof. Dominguez continued to expound on her freakishness. "If parts aren't reattached in a certain amount of time, they will dissolve into protoplasm. However, you should regenerate them, with the exception of your head, eventually."

_How could she just talk about stuff like that casually?_

"Another oddity revolves around your marsupium. It seems to have some very strange dimensions. Theoretically, you could fit a full-grown human being inside it without any visible bulge."

"You're kidding."

"I never kid."

"It's true," Madame Foster chimed in. "She's never had a sense of humor as long as I've known her. A stick in the mud, that one."

"May I continue? Now, is there anything else you wanted to know about?"

Frankie's cheeks flushed with embarrassment (at least they would have if she still had any blood; the increased flow of energy did result in a slight glow in her eyes, though). "Well... what about... you know..."

"Ah, yes. Well, you'll be happy to know that you are, in fact, fully capable of breeding with humans."

"You're ki- oh, right, you never do. How is that even possible?"

"You have exactly the same number of chromosomes as a human, though some of the gene locations are changed. In all likelihood, your children would carry all of your non-human characteristics. Now... you're fertile every three months, as opposed to every month. The physical act should be the same, but birth would be much different, as you are an egg-layer."

Frankie boggled. "Eggs?"

The professor nodded. "I realize this is a lot to deal with... would you like the number of a mental health professional to help you cope?"

"Oh, no, no no... I'll be fine. What's the big deal about being a no-blooded egg-laying marsupial with a bottomless pouch?"

Professor Dominguez's expression never changed. "Sarcasm is hardly helpful, Ms. Foster."

"Helps _me_ plenty," mumbled the demon.

"Now... I really must insist you get professional help. I know a number of very highly-educated, compassionate, and above-all discreet therapists that can help. I strongly suggest you give one a call," she said as she handed over a list.

* * *

_So, here I am, staring at a list of shrinks._

_Like I'd ever call one. I'm fine._

_Couldn't be better.

* * *

_

July 3, 2005

_Moping's getting old...but what else is there for me to do? Chores. Yeah, but with superspeed and magic, they get done too fast. So, it seems like moping's become my hobby.

* * *

_

July 7, 2005

_I'm getting scared... this morning, I looked in the mirror and the face staring back at me actually felt like mine. Am I losing myself? Maybe I am... this changed body of mine has been starting to feel "right", lately. But I don't want it to be. The second this truly become "me" in my mind is the second that I've forever given up on being human again, and I never want to do that.

* * *

_

July 10, 2005

_Eduardo still runs every time I enter the room. I keep trying to remind myself he also reacts this way to butterflies, doilies, and Ray Romano. But y'know... when you're trying to get used to being different, the sight of a big, hairy, horned creature running in horror from you isn't one of the big self-esteem boosters.

* * *

_

July 16, 2005

_Adopt-a-Thought Saturday. This little girl who'd wandered away from the backyard and into the house saw me and wanted to adopt me. She said I was the prettiest imaginary friend she'd ever seen. I had to explain to her that I'm not up for adoption, I just work here. She was so broken-hearted...

* * *

_

July 19, 2005

_I'm starting to go stir-crazy. I can't believe I've barely been out of the house in two months. It's driving me nuts._

_Mac suggested that I should go out tonight and try out my wings. Maybe I should... I mean, I've fluttered around a bit in the house, mostly to reach things on the high shelves, but I've never really cut loose and just thrown myself into it, just to see how fast, high, and far I can go. _

_Of course, the reason I haven't done it yet is that there's a chance I could get caught... but that's just my fears talking. _

_That's it._

_I'm doing it.

* * *

_

Frankie stood on the rooftop the night breeze ruffling her fur slightly. From here, you could see most of the city of Crackenburg (Bloo had once pointed out the corner of Mac's apartment building). The night was clear, cloudless, and the recent streak of hot, humid weather had ended, making the night absolutely perfect for flying.

Frankie begin to gently flap her wings, slowly lifting her off the ground. She willed herself forward, increasing her wings' speed to carry her higher and faster, and let herself be carried out into the night.

It was bliss. Beneath her, she could see the lights of the city twinkling in welcome. The stars lay in a canopy above her, a natural reflection of the artificial "starry night" below. It was like being in the very center of infinity. And able to reach out and grab it.

Faster and faster now, her wings beat... her speed increasing with her altitude. The city below blurred, and eventually gave way to forests. And the forests eventually gave way to the ocean. And still she went faster and higher. The icy air, far from chilling her to the bone, served only to invigorate her. This, then, was what she was made for, what she was born to do.

Faster and faster now... time had lost all meaning blurring into an endless now. A loud bang temporarily deafened her. She had just broken the sound barrier. It was almost impossible to believe that she'd been able to do it but she'd heard the evidence.

And still she went faster.

The ocean now gave way to the coast of Portugal. The Spanish countryside whisked by. The City of Lights was but a blip. She zipped past the Rhineland, the Baltic, the Steppes... the Great Wall ran beneath her for a while... the Pacific swept by...

She circled the world three times that night, taking a different route each time. Observatories would, for years afterward, be baffled by the strange blue comet that was seen all over the world that night, following an impossible path. If only they'd known the truth...

She finally landed back on the roof at 4AM. Too exhilarated to be exhausted, she settled back down in her room

* * *

_July 19, 2005 (continued)_

_Wow._

_If you've never flown before, I highly recommend it. _

_I've had my ups and my downs over the last couple of months... but today, for the first time... I was actually HAPPY about my transformation._

_I just hope it lasts.

* * *

_

_July 23, 2005_

_Spent the day getting my butt whipped by Coco in Street Tetherball II Alpha. How the heck does someone with no hands get so good at video games? _

_Coco... she's an odd duck... airplane... plant... thing. She's the only one in the house who hasn't shown any reaction whatsoever to my change. But then, she's always been kind of in her own world. For all I know, I always looked like this in her eyes.

* * *

_

_July 27, 2005_

_I've been practicing more with my sorcery lately. There doesn't seem to be much of a limit on what I can do... I've rearranged furniture, transmuted water into soda, turned the entire house upside down, conjured a rain of ping-pong balls, made the carpets grow like grass, made the grandfather clock in the northeast hallway sing Green Day's "Basket Case", and teleported the entire house to Antarctica and back. _

_There does seem to be one limit, though... anything I do to a living being reverses itself in a couple of hours. I found this out when Cockamamie Amy asked me to remove a humongous zit from her forehead. I figured, why not, and zapped it away. Two hours later, it was back._

_It kinda sucks that I have this limitation, but I'm glad I found out before I tried something like trying to restore Wilt's arm. I wouldn't have been able to deal with breaking his heart like that._

_Bye for now, diary... I promised Mac I'd conjure him a huge water slide.

* * *

_

_August 3, 2005_

_I've been fooling myself._

_I was starting to think that maybe life wouldn't be so bad. I was starting to think, maybe, there was a chance I could be happy. _

_I was wrong. _

_It began this morning. I was cooking breakfast (yeah, I can just conjure food, but it never tastes as good), and the phone rang...

* * *

_

"Hello, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, how can I help you?"

"_Frankie, is that you? I finally got back from Phoenix, and I was wondering... you wanna get together?"_

"Kathy? You're back?" _This is bad. This is really, really bad. _

"Duh, I just SAID I was. Think you can get the bunny to let you get out early tonight? We've got a lot to catch up on."

_You don't know the half of it, sister. _

"Um... it's not gonna work tonight. In fact... it's not looking good anytime soon."

"_Oh... well, if you wanna change your mind, you know my cell number."_

She sounded so disappointed. And it HAD been over three months.

And... it was Kathy. They'd been best friends since kindergarten. If there was anyone she could count on...

"Look... I can't go out, but, we really should talk. Come over tonight after dinner, okay?"

"_Sure... is that big cuddly purple one still there? Hugging him's like therapy."_

"Eduardo? Yeah... Eduardo's still here. You're, like, the only one who doesn't scare him."

"_Cool. I'll be there around seven."_

"Good. Be warned... I've been through some changes."

"_What, you got some new piercings and tats?"_

"Something like that."

* * *

The doorbell rang at 7:08.

Frankie took a deep breath. _Well, here goes everything..._

She opened the door.

Kathy looked mostly the same as she had the last time. She'd added a new tattoo on her left forearm proclaiming her love for Coldplay (Kathy often joked that she was the only living African-American metalhead on the East Coast), but otherwise, she remained the same. Which, of course, was more than she could say for herself, judging by Kathy's complete lack of recognition.

"Oh, you must be one of the new friends," she said. "I'm looking for Frankie."

"Kathy... it's me."

Confusion gave way to comprehension as Kathy's jaw dropped. She started to say something, stopped, started to say something else, stopped... the two stood there, wordless, the tension between them so thick you could fill a milkshake glass with it.

"Frankie..." she managed to stammer out...

Frankie nodded. "It happened about ten weeks back."

"Y-you're... you're a..."

"Kathy, please... I know I look different, but I'm still the same person under all the fur."

"I... I... I have to go!" she said, sprinting away, leaving Frankie standing in the doorway, gaping.

* * *

_And that's it. My friend, who I've known my whole life, ran away from me like I was some kind of monster._

_It was at that point that I realized that I will never, ever be happy again._

_This is my last diary entry. There's no point updating it anymore... diaries are for people with lives.

* * *

_

September 1, 2005

It'd been a month since Mac had been to the house... his mom'd sent him to summer camp. Of course, that had led to Wilt, Eduardo, and Coco attempting to smuggle Bloo into camp so that he wouldn't be adopted. It turned into a pretty hilarious escapade. But, that was a story for another day. Today, Mac was at Foster's for one main purpose... to check on Frankie.

He'd pretty much expected Mr. Herriman to answer the door... Frankie hadn't done it in a while. "Greetings, Master Mac," he said. "I trust summer camp was most enjoyable?"

"More or less, yeah."

"I trust the shenanigans we endured this year will not be repeated next summer?"

"No, sir. Um, I came to see Frankie... is she around?"

"Miss Francis..." he sighed, "...has not been herself lately. Perhaps you will prove more effective in stirring her from her present state."

"Present state?"

"You should see for yourself. Be warned... it may be a most unpleasant sight."

Mac hurried up the stairs to Frankie's room. His knocks weren't answered, so he slowly opened the door and peeked inside.

The stench hit him at once. It smelled like a skunk had died, decomposed, and gone to the bathroom afterwards. Holding his breath, he went in.

Frankie was little more than a lump of matted fur and feathers. Her three eyes were bloodshot from extended crying, her hair limp and dull.

"Frankie?" he whispered.

"M-mac?" Her voice was strained, hoarse; it sounded like she hadn't spoken in weeks.

"Frankie, you look awful... what's wrong?"

"Waste of time... all of it... go away..."

"Please, Frankie, talk to me..." Mac pleaded, but Frankie had pulled the covers over her head, sealing herself away from the world. No amount of prodding would snap her out of it. Giving up, he left.

On his way out, Mac passed Creaky Pete. The creature, who seemed to consist of nothing more than a beard, a hat, and a rocking chair, was one of the oldest imaginary friends at the house and seemed to always know everything that was going on.

"Wonderin' what happened to Frankie, are ya?" the Friend asked, in his brittle voice.

"Do you know?" Mac asked.

"Well..." he began, "It happened... 'bout a month back..."

"Yes?"

"...seems Frankie's friend... Kathy... came on by..."

"And?"

"Seems... she done... come by...

"AND?"

"An'... she came on by... an' Frankie met her..."

"AND!"

"An' Frankie... she done scared her... an' she ran away... an' that... is why Frankie... is so down."

"Uh... thanks!"

It was clear... if Kathy was the cause, then Kathy would have to be the solution.

* * *

"Are we THERE yet?" whined a blue lump with eyes and a mouth, as he slid after his creator.

"You didn't have to come along if you didn't want to, Bloo," Mac replied.

"Well, it's partly my fault she was changed in the first place, so I feel kinda... what's the word where you feel responsible for something?"

"Bloo, it was ALL your fault!"

"Look, we can argue all day long about who mutated who, but we both know that won't solve anything."

"Right, right... anyway, here we are. 695 Elm, apartment 5E." He rang the doorbell and waited. After a minute, a woman about Frankie's age opened the door.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"No... but there's someone else you can help."

"Look, I dunno what anyone told you, but I don't really have a lot of disposable income, so whatever charity you're here for..."

"Leave this to me, Mac. I'll use the ol' Kazoo charm." Bloo sauntered – well, as much as a creature with no legs _can_ saunter – forward and put on his biggest grin. "Melinda..."

"My name's _Kathy_, you- wait, you're one of those guys that live over at... "

"Yeah, yeah... you're the one who broke Frankie, right? Well, thanks a lot! Now she won't get out of bed for anything, and all of us have to pick up the slack! I mean, have you ever _tasted _Coco's cooking? She ain't no Emeril LaGassy, lemme tell you..."

"Broke... wait, what are you talking about?"

"Please," Mac interrupted, "hear us out, okay? Look, ever since you came over, Frankie's been really depressed... she just lies around in bed, crying all day."

"And _reeking_,_" _added Bloo, "don't forget the reeking."

"Look... I... that was a month ago, okay? I mean, if you were in that situation, you'd run too, right?"

"Wrong. I WAS, and I DIDN'T. Bottom line is, she's your friend, and you let her down."

The woman sighed sadly. "Kid... after what I did, I doubt she'd even see me anymore. It'd be a waste of my time, and I'm really sorry, but this was a waste of _your_ time." She closed the door.

"Well, THIS was pointless," Bloo groused. "Might as well go home. If we hurry, we can have some of Coco's 'socks parmigiana' while it's still inedible."

"Yeah," agreed Mac, "I really thought we'd be able to get through to her, but I guess not."

* * *

Kathy sighed. It'd killed her to send the kid away, but it was too late. There was no way she could show her face at Foster's now, after what had happened. Ever since that day, she had replayed the moment over and over again in her mind, and could find absolutely no excuse for how she'd behaved.

Her friend was drowning, and she'd thrown her an anvil.

Now sprawled on the couch, idly flipping channels, she came to the conclusion that she was, as a human being, completely worthless.

"_My Best Friend's a Monster now concludes on Spacetime: Sci-Fi for women_."

Kathy perked up.

"_Frannie, I'm really sorry I abandoned you just because you became a hideous mutant. Can you ever forgive me?"_

"_It's okay, Katie. The important thing is that you're here now. Best friends forever, right?"_

She switched of the TV. Kathy wasn't particularly religious, by any means, but she knew an omen when she heard one. Maybe she'd blown nearly two decades of friendship to hell, maybe there was no way she could ever mend what had been broken... but if there was an opportunity to set things right between them, it was her duty as a friend to take advantage of it.

* * *

The first thing she noticed upon entering Frankie's room was the odor. It was the single foulest thing she had ever had the misfortune of smelling in her entire lifetime.

The second thing was the mess. Dust and cobwebs covered everything, even the bed.

The third was the bed itself... or, rather, the motionless blanket-covered lump atop it.

"Frankie?" she whispered. The lump didn't even move. Kathy's mind raced as her imagination assaulted her with all the worst possibilities. She'd starved to death, perhaps. Maybe she'd taken a fatal valium-and-vodka cocktail. Maybe she'd slit her wrists, or asphyxiated, or even simply willed herself to death somehow, as if that was possible...

..no. she couldn't let herself think that. Carefully, she edged over to the bed, and pulled the cover away. A strangled gasp exited her throat. She'd prepared herself for the worst... but now, confronted with the results of her transgression, all her preparations fell by the wayside. A month ago, she'd been startled and fear-stricken by the results of her friend's transformation... but in the interim between then and now, she'd come to realize that Frankie had been vibrant, colorful... beautiful. The contrast between what she was then, and now, was stark and terrifying.

The pink hair was limp, and matted; the blue, black, and white fur, whatever of it was visible between Frankie's rank, filthy, clothing, was mangy and dull; the wings had shed most of their rosy feathers. Her eyes were red-rimmed and bleary.

"Frankie?" she whispered again, prodding her. She could feel her ribs sticking out. When was the last time the girl had eaten?

Her pointed ears twitched, registering Kathy's voice.

"Frankie... if you're there... it's me, Kathy. I just came by to say I'm really, really sorry. I shouldn't have run like that. I just... I just hope you can someday forgive me. But even if you can't... at least don't let yourself waste away like this. There are still people who care about you.

She turned to leave, but felt something grab her wrist.

"Don't go," croaked Frankie.

* * *

_Dear diary:_

_Well, I'm back, miss me?_

_I never thought I'd return. But then, I never thought Kathy would ever come back. But, well, there she was. She truly did care. _

_For like, a solid fifteen minutes, all I did was cry on her shoulder. She probably could've grown rice on her denim vest, afterwards. But, it was pretty therapeutic, really... it was as if the misery that had been infecting my body (literally; I found out later that extended periods of depression cause my body to start to decay... Kathy, quite literally, saved my life today, because I would have eventually died) was flowing out._

_After I was finally done, we caught up. I told her the whole story... the party, the necklace, the transformation, all the discoveries about my biology and my powers... you know, after the original shock last month, she took it pretty much in stride._

_The more we talked, the more my mood improved... and I began to notice that my feathers were regrowing, the missing patches of fur filling back in... I don't think I even registered that I was losing them during my illness. You never really notice that._

_Okay, so the stench of death was fading, but still, I hadn't bathed in a month. Or eaten, or drunk, or anything. I barely had the energy to stand on my own two hooves. So, Kathy helps me to the bathroom, and then she actually starts to bathe me. You read that right. She took a sponge and soap and went to work. And didn't feel weird or anything... it was just her being a friend. And then, she makes me chicken soup (okay, it was actually won-ton soup and she actually ordered it from Ping's down the block) and spoon-fed it to me._

"_You don't have to do this for me," I said._

"_Yeah... I kinda do," was her reply. "I don't know if it'll make up for what I did, but at least I'm trying."_

"_You have, Kathy." I meant it. She'd more than made up for the pain she caused me._

_After that, it was like the old slumber parties we used to have when we were kids. We split several more orders of Chinese food, gossiped, watched some DVDs, played video games, giggled more than any two people ever should. We even had a pillow fight. _

_It was great. After a month of being dead to the world, I felt like a human being again, like life had purpose, like my form didn't matter._

_When morning finally came, she gave me a big hug before leaving. "We have to do this again sometime," I said. _

"_Forget that," she answered me, "we have to go out and party again!"_

"_Um, well, in case you noticed... I'm not exactly set up for natural human interaction."_

"_Maybe so... but Halloween is coming up. And you've already got your costume, right?"_

"_Yeah... yeah, you're right. I CAN go out on Halloween!"_

"_So, we'll do it then? You, me, the clubs, party till we drop?"_

"_Damn right, girlfriend!"_

_So... two months. Halloween._

_I can't wait.

* * *

_

_Next: Halloween is here... will Frankie be getting a treat, or will fate trick her?_


	4. Halloween Horrors

_Well, here it is, a new chapter, and a new title for the story... and just in time for Halloween, too! I wasn't sure I was going to finish it on time, but it looks like I got lucky!_

_Dark Wolf 021: Don't apologize, sometimes my lazy ass needs pushing._

_Tori007otaku: Update soon? Is now okay?_

_Kelt: I'm very anal about my spelling; any errors that somehow get through are usually legitimate typos that I didn't catch._

_Barry: Yes, Halloween will prove very interesting for Frankie, and bring a big change to the life of someone very close to her._

_Dracozombie: So do I... so do I._

_Lonestar: I'm glad you think I'm not repeating myself. Though, this story will soon share one more thing in common with Rhondagenesis... no hints as to what._

_Demon Guyver: All right already._

_Memoirs of a Demon Named Frankie_

_Chapter IV: Halloween Horrors_

"Well, what do you think?"

Frankie did a quick twirl in front of the assembled guests. She had on her magenta sweater and purple skirt, the one she'd worn the night she met Dylan Lee (may he rot in hell, amen), modified, of course, for her transformed body. She had also donned a pair of earrings with stones that matched her pendant. She'd even accessorized her three tails with ribbons. After all... it was her first night clubbing in six months.

Ever since her transformation half a year ago, Frankie'd been laying low. Being a demon tends to stunt your social life, after all.

But tonight was Halloween. It was a night for the unusual.

"Ahem," responded Mr. Herriman, "I shall refrain from comment on your appalling attire... dreadful though it may be. I will, however, point out that you have neglected your assignment to redecorate the house for the holiday."

"Not a problem," responded Frankie. "I prepared the spell in advance. Watch and learn, Hasenpfeffer-Face."

She concentrated... orange and black crept of the walls. Matching balloons and streamers manifested in the right places. A plethora of pumpkin-, bat-, and skull-themed decorations sprouted from all areas. Outside, the lawn was transformed into a spooky graveyard, complete with cobwebs and mist. The crowning touch was an endless loop of "Monster Mash" playing over the PA system.

"How's that?"

"That is... adequate. You may enjoy the evening's... cudgeling."

"It's called 'clubbing.'" She turned to the other imaginary friends. "Grandma's out overseeing the party at the senior center, so I'm counting on you guys to hold down the fort. And don't let Bloo eat all the candy."

"Moi?" the imaginary friend protested with chocolate-stained lips. "You wound me."

"It'll be okay," Wilt said. "Coco, Eduardo and I can totally handle the trick-or-treaters."

"You sure?"

"CoCO!" answered the avian friend.

"Si... I no scared. Is just niños in costumes. Is nothing to be scared o-" The doorbell rang, sending the behemoth leaping into her arms. "Los monstruos! They come for to eat my brains!"

Frankie sighed. Eduardo was always a handful... literally, in this case. He'd only recently accepted Frankie herself as a non-monster, and that just meant she only scared the heck out of him 40 of the time.

"It's okay, Ed," Frankie said soothingly, "It's just Mac." She opened the door.

Mac, dressed as a pirate, looked up at the demon. "You're looking great, Frankie!" he said, giving her a thumbs up.

"I'm FEELING great, Mac. It'll be great to get out of the house, even if it's only for a night."

"Hey, twerp!" yelled a voice from outside. "Hurry up! We're behind sche—uh... time-thingy!"

"Oh, right... Mom made Terrence take me trick-or-treating, so I'd better get going." He hurried off.

A moment later, a motorcycle ridden by a girl in a devil costume rode up. "What do you think?" she asked. "I figured I'd go with the demon theme."

"Lookin' good, Kathy. Y'know, I could make you look a little more authentic, but it'd wear off in a couple of hours."

"Y'know what? Let's do it!"

"All right... here goes..." A sparkly mist enveloped Kathy, her brown skin changing to the red of her fake horns and tail. The former turned black and enlarged, and the latter lengthened and began to undulate in response to Kathy's thoughts. Her boots melted away to reveal hooves much like Frankie's own, and her fingernails became claws. Finally, a pair of batlike wings blossomed from her back to complete the "costume".

"Whoa," the newly-minted she-devil managed. "I... can feel them!"

"And now, the finishing touch..." With a final gesture, Kathy's motorcycle began to morph into a true "hellcycle", complete with skull-shaped front ornament and hellfire-belching exhausts.

"Awesome," Kathy marveled, slipping her modified helmet over her horns, and hopped aboard. After conjuring her own helmet, Frankie jumped on the back of the transfigured vehicle.

"Ready to ride, Kathy?"

"You'd better believe it, Frankie," replied Kathy as she gunned the engine.

"Oh, there's one more surprise..."

Kathy's eyes widened as the motorcycle lifted off the ground.

"Cool," she answered, as the two flew off into the night.

* * *

"All right, dork," Terrence said as they approached the first house, "try not to dork it up too much."

"I'll give it my best shot," replied Mac sarcastically, ringing the bell.

"Oh, how cute!" the woman at the door replied. "Well, let's see what kind of booty I have for my little pirate... arr! Candy bars off the port bow!" She dropped a jumbo Chortles into his bag.

"Hey, where's mine?" shouted Terrence.

"Aren't you a little old?" the woman asked. "Besides, you don't have a costume."

"Uh... uh..." Terrence reached into his own bag for some of the "ammo" he'd planned on using later that night. Sticking the object on his head, he proclaimed "I'm Crazy Toilet Paper Head! I have toilet paper on my head! And I'm crazy! Give me some candy!"

Meanwhile, watching from across the street, two men in black robes watched with interest. Given the date, no one paid them much attention. However, their mode of dress had nothing to do with the holiday.

"The boy," said one, "is exactly what we've been looking for. "

"What, the kid with the mullet, the zits, and the toilet paper on his head?" asked the other.

"No. Definitely not him in any way, shape, or form. The other one, the pirate... he's quite strong in The Power. He will make an excellent gift to the Master."

* * *

_Club Fred _was hopping that night as Frankie and Kathy brought their ride in for a landing. The two demons entered the club, eyes turning and widening as bystanders took in their incredibly realistic "costumes".

"Frankie? Kathy?" It was Laura, one of their regular clubbing buddies. "Those have to be the coolest costumes ever! I know that Kathy's a devil, but... what are you supposed to be?"

"Oh, this? It's some obscure fairytale creature called a Valix. I looked it up in one of Grandma's old books. One of the Imaginary Friends used to belong to a Hollywood makeup artist, and he did us up." The lie had been rehearsed on the way over. They'd come up with explanations for virtually every oddity in their costumes... the hooves had stiletto heels concealed in them to give the illusion of tallness and digitrade feet; the wings and tails were latex with animatronics inside, controlled by small triggers in the palms of their gloves; Frankie's third eye was a special contact lens held in place by a fake putty eyelid, and her third breast was a gel-filled balloon taped under her faux-fur "suit". They had to be careful, though... if anyone noticed Frankie's third eye blink or Kathy's prehensile forked tongue flick out, it would be hard to explain. And periodically, Frankie would have to "recharge" Kathy's costume.

So far, however, it was going pretty well. Right now, Frankie found herself dancing with a guy in a cheesy werewolf costume.

"You dance pretty good for a girl who's basically walking around on stilts," Wolfboy commented.

"Oh, yeah... well, I was gonna wear clown shoes over these, but I figured, why tempt fate, right?" Frankie came back, grinning.

Wolfboy chuckled. "You're a fun girl, Frankie. Wouldn't mind getting to see the face under the fur, though."

"Neither would I," sighed Frankie under her breath.

"Excuse me?" asked the werewolf.

"I mean... I wouldn't mind seeing your real face, either! But hey... it's Halloween, right? We've gotta stay in character."

"Excuse me," a voice said, "mind if I cut in?"

Frankie turned. The speaker was a handsome man in his early twenties, clad in a tuxedo and expensive Italian loafers. His long black hair was pulled back in one of those ponytails that were popular ten years ago. On him, instead of hopelessly lame, it looked good. He had intense ice-blue eyes that seemed to stare right into hers. Wordlessly, Frankie turned away from Wolfman Jack in favor of the newcomer.

"So," she said nervously, "Are you from around here?"

"No, I'm new in town," he said. "My name is Sinclair. I've got business here for a while, but I'll be moving on to bigger and better things soon enough."

"Oh. Um, my name's Frankie..."

"I know."

"How?"

"I overheard you when you told the young gentleman in the werewolf costume."

"Oh."

* * *

"Well, this is a lotta nothing," Terrence groused, looking through the bag. "Sugar-free candy, sugar-free gum... raisins? CARROT STICKS? What kind of Halloween is this?"

"Why do you think Mom lets me go trick-or-treating? The town council passed an ordinance this year that all Halloween candy has to be sugar-free or healthy. The dentist's community here has a LOT of power."

"That's stupid. Hey, this long one with the fuzz on the end looks pretty good. "

"That's a toothbrush."

"Oh. So that's what they look like."

They were almost to the next house when the men in black robes surrounded them.

"Give us the boy..." hissed one of them, drawing a nasty-looking curved knife."

"Uh, sure!" cowered Terrence. "Just, uh, let me go, okay?"

"Terrence, they're probably just a bunch of bullies out messing with everyone. You're SUPPOSED to be watching me, just get rid of them, okay?"

"Fine, why don't we throw the candy at 'em. That's all it's good for anyway," he said as he hurled the sack at one of them. The robed man simply lifted a finger, and the sack combusted into a whiff of smoke. Terrence screamed and ran off.

"You're... not faking this, are you," Mac stammered.

Wordlessly, they grabbed him.

* * *

As Frankie and the newcomer slipped onto the dance floor, the band shifted to a slow song. The two moved closer together. Frankie could feel her eyes drowning in his.

"So, you're, uh... you're not wearing a costume," Frankie stammered, trying to stifle the glow of embarrassment in her eyes.

"Actually, I am. I'm dressed as 'normality.'"

"Oh. That's pretty clever," Frankie chuckled weakly.

"But, let's be honest," Sinclair said. "One of us here is NOT wearing a costume."

This time, Frankie couldn't hold back the glow.

_How...? How could he have known? The other guy came closer than he did... he didn't notice anything! But this guy... he knew. He knew right away. _

"You're a rare find, you know. A Valix, in this day and age. With all the breathtaking, exotic beauty and grace they were known for, all wrapped up in a modern, new-millennium package. You could be the best thing to hit this world in centuries. And yet... I have a feeling you're not happy."

"Yeah... I'm not."

"You were human once, and you wish to be again."

"That's right." Frankie found the words tumbling out of her mouth uncontrolled. It was as if, captive by the eyes, she couldn't hide anything. "I've been trying to fake it, trying to stay upbeat, trying to look on the bright side, but really, all I want is for my life to be normal again."

"Let me get this straight," the man said. "You're virtually immortal... you can soar at speeds eagles only dream of... you have the power to change the world for the better... and you would throw it all away to embrace the life of mediocre normalcy you once held?"

"I didn't CHOOSE to be this way. It was forced on me. And besides... my life was anything BUT normal."

"I see."

He smiled.

"I believe I can give you what you want."

Her eyes widened.

"Who ARE you?" she asked.

* * *

Kathy checked her watch. It was almost time for a "recharge." She could feel her transformation starting to wear off.

_Where DID that girl disappear to? _she thought, feeling her wings starting to shrivel.

"Kathy!" a shout came from behind.

"Well, it's about time," Kathy said as she turned toward—

"What in...!" she sputtered. Frankie had lost well over a foot in height, her hair was orange, her skin a pale, hairless pink, she had a distinct lack of extra body parts... in short, Frankie was human again.

"How did--?" she stuttered.

"Well, I was dancing with this guy, and he said he had the power to make me normal, and he takes me out back to the alley... it, gets kinda hazy after that, it's really hard to remember what he did to me... but WHO CARES? I'm ME again!" She hugged Kathy tightly.

"Um... I'm really happy for you, Frankie, but... don't you think it might have been a little stupid to just take that guy's word?"

"Kathy... see this? This is my butt. Notice the lack of any unsightly tails. Face it... I'm human again. Period. There is NO downside to this. Everything's worked out."

* * *

Mac found himself shackled to a slab in some kind of makeshift temple. On the floor, arcane designs had been drawn in animal blood. He HOPED it was animal blood, anyway.

To his left, a boy and a girl were shackled to identical slabs. He recognized the girl as Louise, from down the block. The boy who looked about six and had spiky red-blond hair. To his right, there was another girl he didn't recognize.

Gathered around the room were about a dozen men in black robes. Mac couldn't pick out the ones who'd grabbed him; they were all identical. "This is the stupidest haunted house I've ever been in," griped Louise.

"Quiet, whelp," hissed one of the robed men.

"Whelp?" questioned the other girl. "Like, who even talks that way?"

"Silence!" shouted the man. He seemed to speak for all of them. "The Master shall soon be here." He regarded the gathered children. "Alvin Watterson, creator of Fobbes. Louise Parker, creator of Cheese. Yumiko Tanaka, creator of Becky Bravissima. And MacKenzie MacIntyre, creator of Blooregard Q. Kazoo. The Master will be pleased."

So this was the common element... everyone here had created an imaginary friend. What this had to do with anything, however, was beyond Mac's guess. And it seemed there'd be no finding out until the so-called "Master" got here.

And by then, Mac realized... it would probably be to late for the knowledge to make any difference.

* * *

"Sorry to leave you right now," Frankie apologized into her cell, "but there's no reason you shouldn't enjoy yourself. I'll be back as soon as I find a costume. There should be one left over from the production of _West Side Story_ we did last year." She giggled. "Yeah, Bloo WAS the worst Maria _ever._"

Arriving in the vicinity of the House, she was surprised to notice flashing lights out of the corner of her eyes. The place was surrounded by police cars.

_Please... please don't let it be Grandma... _She ran the last block or so, bursting through the door.

What she saw simultaneously relieved her and confused her. Madame Foster was fine... and was surrounded by some surprising people, not the least of which was Mac's brother Terrence.

What was he doing here, anyway? Shouldn't he still be trick-or-treating with Mac?

There were the cops, of course... there was that odd-smelling "brother" of Bloo's, Cheese... there were also two imaginary friends she didn't recognize. One was a winged pink unicorn with a rainbow mane, the other was a stuffed lion that seemed to become real out of the corner of her eye.

Her own situation forgotten, she approached the group. "What's going on?" she asked.

"There were these guys, like, they were cult guys or somethin'," Terrence stammered. "I was kickin' their butts, right? But they used some kind of magic on me that made me run here like I was scared, or something. They wanted Mac."

"What did they say?"

"I'unno, they just wanted Mac for some reason! Leave me alone! I didn't do nothin'!"

"Ma'am," asked one of the officers, "please let us ask the questions. We were about to take a statement from the, uh... unicorn."

"Thank you," the unicorn answered. "Well, my girl Yumiko and I were trick-or-treating when these guys in black robes knocked me out. I can only assume they took her. Well, I knew I would be able to get help at Foster's Home, so I came over here. Along the way I picked up Cheese and Fobbes. Looks like something similar happened to their creators, too."

"Uh, how'd you know? We've been trying to get statements out of those two for the last twenty minutes, but the lion isn't moving and the smelly guy doesn't make any sense.

"Oh, Fobbes only talks to his creator, Alvin," answered the unicorn.

'Then how'd you find out what happened to him?' another officer asked.

"I'm psychic," she answered. The police groaned in response.

"Well... we'll let you know if anything turns up," the officer said. "But we're done for now." With that, the police departed.

"How long has been going on?" Frankie asked.

"Master Terrence arrived roughly one hour ago, followed by Master Cheese, Miss Becky, and Master Hobbes," the giant rabbit answered. "Masters Wilt, and Eduardo and Miss Coco were sent to fetch you."

"You could have just called my cellular phone, y'know," answered Frankie.

"Yes, well... cellular signals are no match for honest footwork," answered Mr. Herriman, yet again refusing to admit any wrongdoing.

"I hurried back here as soon as I got word," added Madame Foster. "Of course, your magical abilities should make this rescue a snap."

"Um, actually, Grandma... I've kind of become human again."

"Oh... I knew SOMETHING looked different about you!"

"It's not important. Look, how can I help?"

"There isn't anything we can do, I'm afraid," the old woman sighed. "Just let the police do their jobs. If only we had SOMETHING to go on..."

"Pea soup!" announced Cheese.

"I beg your pardon?" asked Mr. Herriman confusedly.

"They smell like pea sooouuuuup!" sang the odd yellow creature.

"This is hardly the time or place for such nons-"

"THEY SMELL LIKE PEA SOUP!" announced the imaginary friend even more loudly.

"I think he means the people who took Louise!" realized Frankie.

"Yeah, those guys," confirmed Cheese.

"Now, what reason could they have had for smelling like th-" Madame Foster snapped her fingers. "They must have come from the abandoned soup factory on the edge of town!"

"I'm on it!" shouted Frankie, already bolting out the door.

"That foolish girl!" exclaimed Mr. Herriman. "She has no idea what she is throwing herself into!"

Minutes later, Frankie was back. "Sorry, I just realized I have no idea how to get there or what I'll do when I do." She eyed the winged unicorn. "Uh, miss... you wouldn't mind..."

"No problem... my kid's mixed up in this too. Hop on." Frankie jumped on Becky's back.

"Wait!" a high-pitched voice called.

"Bloo," responded Frankie irritably, "I don't have time. Mac's in trouble and-"

"I know! Look, sometimes I don't act like the best friend in the world. I'm aware of my own obnoxiousness, and most of the time I'm pretty okay with it. But right now, Mac needs me more than ever. I don't know exactly why he needs me, but I'm sure there's a good reason. So... can I go with you?"

"I guess so," Frankie acquiesced. Bloo leapt on board.

"Also, I like horsie rides," the azure blob added as they galloped off.

* * *

"You're too late, guys," Kathy (once again in her cheesy "devil girl" plastic horns and rubber tail) told the three imaginary friends. "Frankie already went home. Something turned her human again, and she went to find a costume so she could come back... and yes, I'm concerned about the weirdness of it too."

"Well... okay." answered Wilt. "Coco, can I please have your cell phone?"

"Coco coco coco!"

"What do you mean, you used up all your minutes?"

"Coco coco coco, coco coco!"

"Well, I'm sorry, I DID tell you to get the plan with free nights and weekends, but you didn't listen."

"Coco coco!"

"Yes, I know your incoming calls are free, but no one ever calls you!"

Coco's butt suddenly started to vibrate furiously as an electronic version of "Who Let the Dogs Out" played. Eduardo, scared, leaped into Wilt's arm. "Los Baja Hombres! They come for to eat my brains!" he shouted.

A large plastic egg popped out of Coco's posterior, opening to reveal her phone. "I am NOT answering that," Kathy said.

Wilt dropped Eduardo ("Sorry.") and picked it up. "Hello?"

"_Wilt! Thank goodness! This is Frankie. We figured out Mac's being held at the abandoned 'Algar's Soup' factory on the edge of town. Meet us there. Bring the police."_

"Okay," answered Wilt, hanging up. "All right, Mac's at the soup factory. We're meeting up with Frankie."

"Coco?"

"No, I'm sorry, but we can't stop for crackers."

* * *

Mac squirmed in his restraints. It was no use, they were too tight to leave any wiggle room.

"I think I hear them coming back," Alvin said. "Whatever they're gonna do... they're gonna do it soon."

Sure enough, the sliding doors opened. In walked the robed men, more than there had been before. At least two dozen. One of them had a fancier robe than the others and a golden mask; Mac assumed he was the "master" that the others had mentioned before.

Alvin was right... whatever was supposed to go down, was about to.

* * *

"This isn't good," Frankie whispered to the others as she peered down through the skylight. "There's gotta be at least a two dozen down there, and they're probably armed... how am I gonna get in there and save him?"

"Ahem," interrupted Becky. "Magical unicorn, remember?"

"Oh, right," remembered Frankie. "What do you bring to the table?"

"Well, flying, obviously... I mentioned telepathy... oh, also, I can breathe fire."

"Oooh... I can use that. Okay, here's what we're going to do..."

* * *

"For years," began the Master, "children have created imaginary friends. Only certain children, however, have the ability to truly bring their creations to actual life. I have discovered, through certain dark arts, the source of this ability."

In spite of his fear, Mac listened. He'd always wondered about how imaginary friends could achieve existence.

"You four possess a rare power... to create reality out of thought. Such power is called psychokinesis. This power fades as one gets older... this is why adults are incapable of creating imaginary friends. However, at this time, you are young and innocent... and full of mental energy ripe for the picking. Of course... I'll have to kill all of you to get it. As a bonus, your sacrifice will please my other-realm masters. You see, I have no soul, on account of having sold it to a cabal of demons for vast mystic power."

"Wait," interrupted Mac, "If you HAVE vast mystic powers, why do you need power from us?"

"That's the thing about power," the Master responded. "You can never have enough." He drew a knife. "And now... I believe I'll be taking yours."

"No! Please!" Mac bawled. "I don't wanna die! I'm only eight! It isn't fair! I don't wanna die!"

"Please. At least show some dignity." The Master waved his hand, and Mac found his mouth zippered shut. Now, all he could do was silently sob as the end neared.

_I'll wish someone was here, _Mac realized._ Bloo, or Frankie, or Madame Foster, or Wilt, Coco, or Eduardo... anyone. Even Terrence. Even him. _

_I don't wanna be alone._

He closed his eyes, trembling, dreading the sharp sensation that would mark his separation from the world of the living.

It never came.

Instead, there was a crash from above. Startled, Mac's eyes jerked open and upward. He saw a cascade of broken glass raining down on the gathered cultists. Above, a winged unicorn was descending, her nostrils spitting flames. Astride her were Bloo and Frankie. The old, human Frankie.

"Becky!" shouted Yumiko. "You came!"

"We'll have you free soon," the unicorn said, lowering her horn to charge. She flew directly at the assembled cultists, all of whom dived out of the way.

The Master yawned.

* * *

_What's the matter with this guy? _thought Frankie. _It's like he's barely aware that he's about to be a loony-kebab!_

As the trio cleared the distance, the Master languidly extended his palm. The effect was immediate... it was as if Becky had hit a wall. Frankie and Bloo were flung off by the sudden jolt, Bloo smacking into the wall right next to Mac.

"Hey, Mac," the blob mumbled dazedly as he slid to the floor, "sliiiight problem with the rescue."

Frankie found herself at the feet of the man in the embroidered robe and gold mask. The cultists advanced on her with knives drawn, but the man signaled they should halt. "Leave her be," the Master commanded. "She is no threat."

"No threat, huh?" muttered Frankie under her breath as she struggled to her feet. "I'll no threat YOU..." She hurled a punch directly at the man's stomach, only to hit a mystical barrier that surrounded him.

"As I said... no threat." Even muffled as it was by the mask, there was something familiar about his voice. "So... enjoying your newly-recovered humanity, Miss Foster?"

A chill of fear ran through Frankie's body as she realized what had happened, followed immediately by a surge of hot anger. "Who are you?" she asked through gritted teeth.

The Master responded by lower his hood and removing his mask. The hair was now loose and unkempt, and the ice-blue eyes now burned with the fires of madness, but the face unmistakably belonged to the man she'd met at the club.

* * *

"My name was once Sinclair Frost," he said, "back when human things mattered to me. I was studying to be a priest. One day, in the library, I wandered down the wrong hall and picked the wrong book off the shelf. The... well, its true name would drive you mad, so let's just call it the Dark Tome... opened my eyes to a world of possibilities. From then on, my life became dedicated to the dark arts. I learned dark magicks, made dark bargains with dark forces from dark realms... basically, 'dark' is the whole theme here. Always on the lookout for more power, I discovered the secrets of psychokinesis, and its connection to imaginary friends. And, as this city has the largest imaginary friend population in the world, naturally I was drawn here.

"Once here, I searched for the four richest sources of power in the city. By sacrificing them – thus, also fulfilling my bargain with the demons who gave me my power – I would absorb their power and thus, gain enough strength to absorb ALL psycho-power from all minds everywhere. I would, in essence, become a god.

"Upon observation, I was rather surprised to discover that one of the children had befriended a Valix demon, namely, you. I had to remove you from the picture, since you could have potentially posed an obstacle to my success. So, I mentally influenced your friend to convince you to go out on Halloween, and to bring you to the club, where I used my powers to reverse the spell that made you a demon.

"And yet," he said, scowling, "you STILL have the nerve to show up. Not that you will accomplish anything. I could extinguish your life with a thought, but, well... if I'm to be a god, I must cultivate the quality of mercy, yes?

"So... I offer you this choice. Turn around, walk away, right now, and your life will be spared. Persist in your sickeningly noble attempt to rescue these children and not only will you die... you will not die as yourself, but as the miserable freak you were."

The young woman sighed. "All I wanted was to just be me. And..." She locked eyes apologetically with Mac. "It's still all I want."

Mac's heart sank as she turned away. _No... she... she couldn't be so selfish._

_Could she?_

Sinclair's lips twisted into a self-satisfied smirk.

It was wiped off his face seconds later as Frankie whirled, her fist slamming into his nose.

"YOU IDIOD!" screamed the dark mage, his hand reflexively holding his bloodied nose. "YOU HAB SEALED YOUR VADE!"

"You'd be a lot scarier if you didn't sound like you had a bad cold," Frankie quipped.

Furiously, the mage cast out his hands, purple lightning snaking out and enveloping Frankie's body. She convulsed with agony.

Mac could only watch in horror as the changes began. Frankie's legs were the first to show the change, the feet lengthening as the ankles migrated up the calves, her shoes falling off as her toes fused together, the toenails thickening and hardening into hooves. Fur, blue and white, sprouted, running up her legs. The changes progressed upwards through her body. Her tailbone spiked through the upper hem of her skirt, splitting into three, each branch lengthening into an undulating cord of flesh and bone. Two spurs tore through the back of her sweater, enlarging, developing, sprouting pink feathers. Something swelled between her breasts as her bustline widened. Fur continued to spread, over her belly, chest, down her new tails, down her arms. Her third and fourth fingers on each hand melted into one, the nails becoming retractable claws and the palms developing thick pads, as the fur spread over them as well. Three bulges formed on her forehead... two blossomed into horns, while the third opened into a new green, feline eye. The other two changed to match it, as her ears lengthened and tapered, her canines became sharper, her tresses turned pink, and her face was finally claimed by the advancing fur. Three pink tassels, each tipping one of her tails, completed the transformation.

Finished, the warlock dropped the young demoness. "So... how does it feel to lose your humanity a second time?"

Frankie looked up, defiant. "I'm still more human than you'll ever be, you ba—" she caught herself—"not-nice person."

"I believe I'll extinguish your life now. By the way, when I reconstructed you, I changed one thing."

He struck her with a bolt of energy. Frankie felt something that she hadn't in six months... pain.

"Your healing abilities are intact... which means I'll be able to torture you for MONTHS. Isn't that fun?"

"I'll show you fun, jerk." Frankie leapt into the air, through another volley of the energy, striking Sinclair in the solar plexus, hooves first. "You think I'm just gonna give up because you turned me back into a monster? I'll never be even a FRACTION of the monster you are, you diseased maniac!" Her fists slammed into the mage's face again and again, punctuating her every word.

"STOP HER, you IDIOTS!" demanded the villain. As one, his disciples charged Frankie, pulling her off and dogpiling her.

"Good, hold her, while I finish my ascension." He once again began to advance on Mac, who, mouth still sealed, could only whimper.

Suddenly, the doors burst open with a crash.

"No morir Senor Mac!" yelled a purple furry freight train – at least, he may as well have been one since he had the same effect on anything in his way. Sinclair had no chance to react as Eduardo collided with him, collapsing on top of him and effectively pinning him.

Behind him, a swat team deployed itself, sweeping through the factory. "Get those kids unchained," the leader said. "And cuff the nutcases." And you..." he pointed his gun at Frankie, "I don't know what the he- the heck YOU are but you won't be hurting anyone tonight."

"Hey!" yelled Louise. "She's the good guy!"

"Yeah!" agreed Alvin. "Leave her alone or Astronaut Alph shall conquer you, stormtrooper vermin!"

"It's true, Officer. That's the guy over there. Under Eduardo."

"Si. I sit on him," the purple behemoth stated proudly.

"You sound familiar," the officer said. "Wait... are you Frankie Foster? It's me, Officer Scarpelli! You used to babysit my little Carla about ten years back!"

"Yeah..." her eyes glowed slightly in embarrassment. "That was me."

"How'd... THAT happen?"

"Long, LONG story. Which I'll be glad to tell once this is all sorted out." Frankie slowly got to her hooves. "I should be able to get those chains off." She conjured a pair of bolt cutters. "I don't know how to get that zipper off, Mac... hopefully they'll be able to remove it at the hospital."

"He disappear."

* * *

"What?" Frankie, as well as everyone else, whirled toward Eduardo, who was now sitting on nothing. "Everyone! He's VERY dangerous! We need to mount a search party and-"

"THE POWER IS MINE!" screamed the triumphant warlock as he appeared above Mac, holding a stone slab aloft.

With a scream of "NO!" Frankie launched herself at Sinclair.

Too late.

Frankie watched as the slab hit Mac with a sickening crunch.

And everything went white.

Grief and anger had combined to form a veil over her senses so thick that Frankie didn't feel her claws ripping into the warlock, tearing him almost in half. She didn't feel his body burst into flame as the dark gods he served claimed their own.

Somewhere in that haze, the word "alive" managed to slip through. Frankie grabbed hold of the word, greedily, rode it out of the miasma of pain and rage that had claimed her, breaking back through to reality.

The scene had changed. Police, and paramedics were swarming. They had clotted around Mac... the slab had been removed, and the chains cut. The words "fading fast" and "not much longer" filtered through the buzz of noise surrounding.

Frankie wasn't sure how she knew what to do next. She just knew. Forcing her way into the crowd, she pulled her pendant off her own neck and leaned toward Mac.

"Miss, what do you think yo-" a medic protested. "I KNOW what I'm doing!" interrupted Frankie as she slipped the pendant around Mac's neck.

The effect was immediate. A brilliant glow surrounded the boy, as red-and white fur coated his body, dark blue wings matching a blue mane of hair grew from his back, and a tail from his spine. Hooves, claws, fangs... etcetera, etcetera.

Three yellow, feline eyes slowly fluttered open. Mac glanced around his face reflecting the mass confusion that the entire crowd was showing.

"Uh... did I miss something?" he asked. (The zipper on his mouth, obviously, was dissolved by his transformation.)

"You missed the ending, sweetie," Frankie said, embracing him. "And, well... I saved your life, but I also kinda ruined it."

"What do you me-" He trailed off, feeling his wings twitch for the first time. He looked at his fur, at his hooves, at his paws... felt his tail, his pointed ears, his new eye... "I'm... just like you," he said, amazed.

"It was the only way," Frankie said apologetically.

"Frankie," responded Mac, "please... don't apologize." He hugged her back, tightly. "I'm GLAD I'm like you now. I'm more worried about how you feel."

"Actually... pretty good overall. Sure, I may be stuck as a demon now... but if one guy knew how to reverse the spell, who knows... maybe someday, I will be human again."

"And even if you won't," Mac added, "You're not alone anymore."

Frankie smiled back. "You are the sweetest kid that ever existed, do you know that?" She gave him a squeeze. "I don't know HOW I'm ever gonna explain this to your mom, though..."

"She'll probably find out from all the TV news crews that're here." He pointed to where dozens of reporters and camera crews had broken through the police barricades and were swarming onto the scene.

"Wanna escape out the skylight?" asked Frankie.

"Yes. Yes I would," her new companion answered, taking wing for the first time. And, hand in hand, the two sailed out into the night.

_Next: Frankie gets a very interesting job offer... and if Mac's mom doesn't kill her first, she just might take it! _


	5. My Son, the Monster

_Well, here's the latest chapter. I've got an overarcing plot for the series now, so it should be easier to work on from this point._

_Starting with the reviews for this chapter, I'll be responding directly to signed reviews via PM._

_Guyver: She sure is._

_Inu: Okay. I'll try._

_Kelt: Glad you're enjoying. Kathy'll have more appearances soon._

_Barry: Glad you like the new title. Frankie's pretty happy now that she's not the only one of her species. And she'll be discovering some surprising revelations about what she is, what she's capable of, and what her future will bring, starting next chapter._

_Dracozombie: There was so much crazyness going on that night that Frankie's brief revert to her human form was the least bizarre thing. And yeah... the ending could have been better. I'm trying to work on that._

_Dark Wolf: Thanks!_

_Well, without further ado, Ch. 5.

* * *

_

Memoirs of a Demon Named Frankie

Ch. 5: My Son, the Monster

_November 1, 2005_

_Well, diary, that could've gone better._

_Okay, so in the space of one night, I regained my humanity, and lost it again. But in doing so, I've achieved something I never thought I could. I'm at peace with what I've become. Saving the world from an evil sorcerer kinda helped in that regard._

_And I have company now... in the process of the night's events, Mac nearly died and I had to use the pendant that transformed me to save his life. He's actually happy with the transformation, since he was always worried about how lonely I was as the only one of my species. He makes a truly adorable Valix... red fur, blue wings, and that little pink nose... you see him and you just wanna give him a big hug. And he loves the ability to fly as much as I do._

_Transforming Mac may have saved him, but it's completely burned out the pendant. There's no magical energy left in it at all, which means my spirit's no longer linked to it. It's also meant I've lost a great deal of my power. I can still fly, I'm still strong, I still have my insane regeneration abilities, but that whole thing where I can make anything happen just by thinking about it? Gone. I can't warp the rules of reality anymore, and transmuting things takes concentration, and doesn't work at all on anything living. My theory is that the bulk of my magic powers were tied up in the pendant, and now that's it's just a hunk of crystal (probably a valuable one, though; it looks like real sapphire), I'm stuck with whatever powers Valixes are supposed to have. I have a feeling there's a lot of misinformation in the official lore... I'm not even sure we're really demons._

_But I digress. The point is, Mac was happy with his new body._

_Mac's mom, on the other hand...

* * *

_

The autumn air sent a slight chill through Frankie's body as she soared over the town. She supposed that, maybe one day, she'd get jaded with the sensation of flight... the thrill of shirking gravity, the exhilaration of accelerating to speeds never dreamed of, the feel of the wind in your fur... maybe someday. Like, when she was in her late thousands. For now, though, every moment was pure, unadulterated bliss.

She glanced over at her "wingman". Mac had started out a little wobbly, but had taken to flight very fast, faster even than she had. His smaller size made him faster and more maneuverable, and he used every opportunity available to flaunt it.

"So," Frankie asked, "How is it so far?"

"Eh... it's okay, I guess..." He paused for a moment. "Okay, so it's the most incredible feeling I've ever had in my entire lifetime, and I can't believe I survived without this for eight years."

The two banked around the edge of town, preparing for another lap.

"You know we're gonna have to go down sometime, Frankie," reminded Mac. "My mom's probably nervous."

"I know, I know," sighed Frankie. "It's just... I'm really worried. It's one thing when you come home with a scraped knee... I've gone and changed your entire species. I mean... baseball to the head? That's normal. But how do I explain fur and hooves and a third eye?"

"You tell the truth," assured Mac. "I'm sure my mom'll be reasonable, considering it was either this or my death."

* * *

"Oh, my BABY! What did she DO to you?" Ellen MacIntyre pulled the eight-year-old close, as if to shield him from the horrors she perceived all around her.

"Mom, it's not like that!" protested Mac. "She saved my life!"

"Oh, my baby, my baby... what am I going to do?" She glared at Frankie. "And YOU... you monster. He's probably your zombie slave now."

"What?" Frankie blurted, incredulous. "Zombie slave? Are you for real?"

"Mom, leave Frankie alone!"

"You. Get out of this house, you... whatever you are!" Mac's mother demanded, shoving the girl out the door and slamming it in her face.

"Well, that could've gone worse," muttered the blue Valix to herself. "She could've had a shotgun."

* * *

Mother and son stood, awkwardly.

"So," Mac said, "do I get thrown out now, too?"

"Oh, honey," Ellen said, hugging her child. "I'm sorry. I've reacted badly. Do you think I don't love you anymore because of this? I'd never feel like that. It's just... this changes so much. I mean... I can't send you to school like this, but I can't afford to home-school you either. What am I going to do?"

"Why can't I go to school?" asked Mac.

"Well... you're... you're all covered with fur! And you have three eyes!"

"Well... if I was bald and had an eyepatch, you'd send me to school, right? So why is this different?"

"It... it just is, all right? Look... people are stupid sometimes. All they look at is what you look like, not at who you are."

"So why should I suffer because other people are dumb?"

"Yes... no... look, it's all very complicated." Ellen sighed. "I think you should at least take a few days until I can explain the situation to the school board.

"Okay," agreed Mac. "I still think you should let me see Frankie."

"It's not happening, Mac. I just... I can't let her near you knowing it was her fault."

"But..."

"End of discussion. You aren't going anywhere near her or that bizarre house she works at."

There was no point in arguing when Mom got like this. Mac fluttered up to his room, dejected.

_Great, _he thought. _Now I can't go to Foster's, Bloo'll get adopted, and I'll be stuck inside for who knows how long._

He plopped down on his bed, and began to realize just how much about him had been altered. His new body was so different, in so many ways. Every inch seemed to bring new surprises, from the retracting claws, to his third nipple, to the little whiskers on his face. It was then that he was struck by how much his life had been altered by this night.

He was fifty percent of an entire species, and the only male.

It was a little overwhelming. And fascinating at the same time.

* * *

Frankie swooped down in front of the house, and was welcomed by a crowd of Imaginaries.

"Miss Francis," acknowledged Mr. Herriman. "Your late-night shenanigans have been broadcast all over the news. It seems..." he leaned in closer, "that you're responsible for saving the lives of several small children. Well done. Well done, indeed," the giant rabbit intoned, shaking her hand.

"Wow," Frankie said, her eyes glowing slightly with embarrassment, "You're... actually complimenting me."

"Don't get too used to it, young lady," Herriman chided, though you could see by his eyes that he was joking. Another first.

"That's nice," said Bloo, "but I have better news. TV-related news. I'm on the NEWS! ...oh yeah, you too, Frankie."

"Huh, really?" Frankie scooped up the blue blob and sprinted towards the couch, where Spunky Reporter Erin Petersen was recapping.

"_And, again, our top story tonight... a child kidnapping was thwarted by the strange humanoid creature shown in these photos taken at the scene. Police officers on the scene confirmed the creature's help, and that she is no threat to anyone. One officer even referred to the creature by the name "Frankie". Whoever she is, this creature has earned the thanks of at least three families tonight. Todd?"_

"_It's TED. Reports are also coming in that there was a fourth child involved in the incident. Eyewitnesses say that the child was actually killed, but that the creature, or 'Frankie' as she's been identified, somehow brought him back from the dead, transfigured into her form."_

"He wasn't dead," muttered Frankie. "That's all I need, people thinking I can do that. I can't even HEAL other people, much less resurrect them."

"Didja see!" Bloo asked. "They showed my elbow in one of the pictures! And a cop drive me home, it was awesome!"

"Aren't you even a little curious as to what happened to Mac?"

"Not really... I mean, you saved him, and now he can't ever be hurt by anything, so why get all worried?"

"Uh, I don't mean to pry, but what did happen?" asked Wilt, sitting down next to him.

"We flew him back to his house, and when we got there, his mom was all mad and threw me out for changing him. Honestly, I kind of expected it, so I wasn't too taken back. Besides... even if she never lets me see him again, I can still talk to him whenever I want."

"How?"

"Simple. I'm a telepath, and so is he. Our minds probably stand out like beacons. It shouldn't be any trouble reaching him. In fact, I think I'll give it a try right now."

She closed her eyes and spread out her consciousness. She reached out, further, further...

There it was, burning like a light in the darkness. She sought it out, reached for it...

_Contact._

_-Mac? Mac, this is Frankie. Are you there?-_

_-Frankie! Is that really you?-_

_-In the neurons, pal. How are things going by you?-_

_-Not good. I'm stuck in the house for now. And mom banned me from going to Fosters'.-_

_-Aw, Mac, that's terrible!-_

_-Tell me about it. Herriman's gonna put Bloo up for adoption, and I'll never get to see you or Madame Foster or any of the guys again!-_

_-It's all right. I bet your mom'll come around eventually. And we can still communicate like this anytime we need. And about the Bloo thing... I think I might have an idea of how to handle that.-

* * *

_

"Three-thirty," intoned the giant rabbit. "It _truly _breaks my heart to do this, but rules are rules." He hit a large red button that had been designated for just such an occasion. Outside, a large banner that said "Free Bloo to a good Home" unfurled, attracting a stampede of children eager to adopt the diminutive, gelatinous friend. The mob stormed though the house, seeking out the little creature, repeatedly passing what they thought was another imaginary friend, a blue creature in a hoodie, skirt, and baby tee, who looked somehow familiar... but since she wasn't the one they were looking for, they ignored her as she went about her chores.

"Can I come out yet?" whined her belly.

"Shh! You want Long-Ears to get wise to us?" she replied, opening her pouch a little.

"Well... it's just that it's hot in here. And cramped. And... kinda moist."

"I can't really help that," she groaned. "If it wasn't for Mac, I wouldn't do this at all."

"I know, I know... but, it's so boring in here! I mean, maybe if I had a TV or something..."

Frankie sighed. "Fine..." She slipped her Game Guy XL into her pouch.

"Oooh," exclaimed Bloo, "_Last Legend IV_!"

"Touch my save file and you're DEAD, Blooregard."

"Awww..."

_-The Bloo problem's under control- _messaged Frankie to Mac.

_-Thanks... now all I have to do is to get mom to believe you're not some kind of monstrous vampire thing.-_

_-Yeah... good luck on that, sweetie.-

* * *

_

Mac sighed. He'd been stuck in his room for the entire day. Technically, he had the run of the apartment, but there really wasn't any motivation to. He especially wasn't in the mood to hear what Terrence would have to say about his new look.

He stared at his reflection in the mirror on the back of his door. _For a monster, I'm about as terrifying as a baby kitten, _he thought dejectedly.

He'd already gotten bored with playing with his new powers... there were only so many times you could turn hydrogen into helium and back without getting bored. Frankie'd said that she'd teach him more complicated transmutations, just as soon as she figured out how to do them herself. In a way, they were both learning for the first time.

On his own, though, he'd discovered a new power... he was able to absorb all the light in a room and release it all in a blinding burst. He wasn't sure exactly what it was useful for, but it was pretty cool. He'd have to think to Frankie about it.

He stared out the window, sighing. There HAD to be a way to get Mom to let him see Frankie and Foster's, but how?

He lay, prone, on the bed, drumming his hooves idly, thinking... memories of the good times they'd shared drifting into his mind. One in particular kept sticking... the all-night rave Bloo'd thrown earlier that year. Most of it was a haze in his mind... he'd overdosed on sugar and gone streaking though town. They'd had to catch up to him by car...

An idea formed in Mac's head.

_If this works, _he thought, _Mom'll HAVE to make up with Frankie.

* * *

_

Ellen frowned at the paper's lead article.

_CHILD RESCUER IDENTIFIED: FRANCIS FOSTER, LOCAL RESIDENT_

_Nov. 2, 2005: The "strange, blue-furred monster" (as one bystander referred to her) responsible for rescuing four children from what was believed to be a religious cult and its charismatic leader has been identified as Francis Foster, 23, a graduate of Syracuse University (majoring in Child Psychology), and granddaughter of local philanthropist and community activist Agatha Foster. Police officer Anthony Scarpelli confirmed the rescuer's identity. "I don't know exactly why exactly she was some kind of anthropomorphic creature, but I can vouch that she's completely harmless. I'd still trust her to babysit my kids anytime."_

_Yeah, _thought Ellen. _I'm sure you'd trust her if you saw what she did to my baby. _An earlier flip through the morning shows had only built up her irritation. Everywhere people were talking about the city's blue, winged hero. Why couldn't they see her for what she really was?

"Oh, mom..."

Ellen perked up. This was the first time Mac had spoken all day. "Yes, honey?" She glanced over to where Mac stood in the doorway, holding...

...oh. no...

"Where did you GET that!" she demanded. "You know you're not supposed to have sugar!"

"Try an' stop me!" Mac retorted, tearing the end off the Pixie Stick, pouring the tiny white crystals down his throat.

"No!" screamed Ellen, but it was too late. Mac's lips pulled back in a rictus of ecstasy, his three pupils narrowed to vertical lines, and he began to twitch. "Okay... stay calm," she said, slowly approaching.

"NOCALMGOTTAGETMORESUGAR!" screamed Mac at the top of his lungs. He streaked off, a red blur, punching right through the wall. Ellen stared in horror at the hyperactive red streak as it caromed through the upper reaches of the buildings. There was no chance that she could possibly catch up to him now. Not on her own.

There was only one person who could... and much as it pained her, she had to call her.

* * *

_CHILD RESCUER IDENTIFIED: FRANCIS FOSTER, LOCAL RESIDENT_

Commander Richard Schuyler (Department of Paranormal Investigation) studied the article. The DPI kept running tabs on all stories of alien sightings, monsters, and other extra-usual occurrences. Most were the usual tabloid trash. This one, however, was in a "real" paper. And there were photos.

The shots of the winged, blue-furred woman had been fed through dozens of sophisticated analysis programs, just to make sure. All tests came up negative. There'd been no tampering with this picture.

"Eyewitness reported her lifting a slab of concrete like it was a marshmallow," his aide, Melissa Perez, reported. "She's clearly metahuman."

"Obviously," Schuyler agreed. "And, obviously, she'd be a tremendous asset to the Department... especially on something like the Orchid Bay investigation."

"The question is, do you think she'd be interested?" Perez dropped a folder on the desk. "These are the results of the background check we ran... she doesn't really seem to be the kind of personality that goes in for covert operations."

'Well, then,' Schuyler responded, his fingers tenting, "We'll have to make sure our offer is sweet enough to convince her that she's interested." He glanced up at Perez. "I want you to pay Miss Foster a visit. You're authorized to offer her whatever our resources can handle. Anything it takes to get her on our payroll."

* * *

_There, _thought Frankie, _that's the last of the bathrooms. _Even without her ability to simply magic her chores done, work was easier these days. Most stains she was simply able to vaporize, so floors, countertops, carpets and other things were a snap to clean. As for cooking, her three tails were like three extra hands, capable of shuffling ingredients and utensils while her normal hands were busy. She'd gotten adept enough with them to frost Imagineday cakes with precision. And her wings made getting around the house faster than ever.

Frankie made up her mind that, if there was ever some miraculous scientific advance that would allow her to become human again, she'd find out if there was some way that she could keep the wings and at least two tails. And, come to think of it, the hooves were nice, too. She hadn't had sore feet in ages.

Okay, the hooves could stay, but the third eye had to go... although... it did kick her vision level up an insane degree. She could see colors no one could even conceive of. She could see them everywhere, making the world unbelievably vibrant. And her ears had improved her hearing to the same extreme, enabling her to hear into ranges beyond even dogs and elephants.

_Okay. So, I'm keeping the wings, the tails, the hooves, the eyes, the ears... and the claws, of course, they're incredibly convenient... the pouch, too, I don't know how I ever live without one... and the fur, because I like how it feels on me... _

She sighed inwardly. As the list of things she liked about her new body lengthened, she realized: over the last two months, she'd gotten completely adapted to her new body, to the point where it was hard to imagine living without the change. Sure, for about an hour on Halloween she'd been human again, but constant distractions had made it impossible to truly think about the consequences of the change. Would she have been happy in the long term? Yes, she almost certainly would have. But, unlike in those early days, she'd have missed being a Valix. Just like, yes, today there was still a part of her that missed being human.

She glanced down at her chest. _Okay, I can still definitely do without having a third breast._

The phone rang, easing Frankie out of her life affirmation. With a swift, fluid motion, her left tail snatched up the receiver, transferring it to her hand. "Hello?" she asked.

"_Is this Frankie?" _a nervous voice inquired. Frankie immediately recognized it... it was the same voice that had, the previous day, accused her of being a vampire.

"Uh... hi, Mrs. MacIntyre... can I, uh, help you?" she nervously answered, ears bracing for harangues.

"_I need your help. Mac's gone on a sugar rampage, and you're the only one who has any hope of catching him."_

_Sugar rampage, _she registered. She'd remembered the last one. It'd taken Mac almost an hour to come down fully, and even then he was still twitchy. If we was all sugared up now, and flying to boot, no wonder Mac had called her. "I'll be right over, Mrs. MacIntyre."

Her wings had her across town in minutes. Setting down in front of the house, she couldn't help but notice that Mac had punched a cartoon-style Mac-shaped hole through the wall. She stifled a chuckle. _It's NOT funny, _she told herself. _He could be in trouble. _

The door opened before she could even knock. "Thank goodness. I, uh... I'm sorry I called you a horrible vampire."

"It's okay... I probably would've had the same reaction if you brought MY son back a different species. Uh... do you suffer from motion sickness or fear of heights at all?"

"No... I don't see why that would be impo-" Ellen yelped as Frankie scooped her up and launched herself into the air. The woman clung tightly to her living conveyance, eyes widened. "You could have warned me!" she choked out.

"Sorry. I thought it'd be a good idea if you came with me. Hold on tight!" Lashing her tails around herself and Ellen to secure her, Frankie spread her wings wider, leveling off somewhere above the city. "I'm gonna try to reach his mind."

"You can do that?" asked Ellen.

Frankie nodded. "Telepathy's one of my powers. So are telescopic vision and extended hearing. Using those, it shouldn't take too long to find Mac." After a few moments, she smiled. "Found him. Hang on... we're going down."

* * *

Mick Dunleavy's time as proprietor of the _Sweet Sensations_ candy store had been fairly uneventful, up until a tiny red furry boy with wings crashed through the window and began gorging on gummi worms.

'Hey, uh... kid," he'd said, nervously approaching the little creature. "You have to pay for those."

"_INEEDCANDYCANDYCANDYRIGHTNOWNOWNOW!_" the little ball of fur had babbled at the top of his lungs, and leapt into the jelly beans.

Mick was about to attempt to talk to the child again when another winged figure slew through the hole the boy had made. The woman, who looked like an adult version of whatever the boy was, set down another, non-mutant woman, and called out "Mac!"

"Uh, ma'am..." Mick began, "I, uh... I don't mean to be a pain, but your son broke my window and ate a lot of my candy, and someone's gonna have to pay for it."

"Actually, I'm not his mom," the blue-furred one corrected. "She is."

"Oh, right," the candy vendor sarcastically replied. "I can see the family resemblance."

"It's a long story," the human woman replied. "Mac! Come here this instant!"

The boy emerged from the barrel of sourballs he'd been working on. "Hi, mom!" he'd said, suddenly calm again. He fluttered over into his mothers waiting arms.

"Mac?" the confused woman asked. "You're..."

"I was faking! Sugar doesn't make me crazy anymore!" Mac answered, grinning. "I just made it look like I went on a candy bender so you'd have no choice but to get Frankie's help! Uh... I'm probably in a lot of trouble now, aren't I?"

"You WILL be when I'm done being relieved you're okay." Ellen hugged her child tightly.

"I'm really sorry, Mom," Mac said. "I just really don't think you shouldn't blame Frankie for what happened to me."

"Well... I can't say I'm happy you're a different species now, but if it really WAS the only way to save your life, then... Frankie, you're forgiven. As for YOU... what ARE we going to do with you?"

"Uh... agree that I learned my lesson and forget about it?"

"Oh, no, I don't think so. You've got a window to pay for, not to mention all that candy you ate."

Mac looked dejected. "How am I ever going to pay for that?" he asked.

"Well... I think that's something I might be able to help with," Frankie replied. "I could always use a hand or two over at the House... I'd also give him lessons in using his powers responsibly."

Mac brightened. "Can I?"

Ellen looked thoughtful for a moment. "That sounds reasonable to me," she agreed.

"All right!" Mac cheered. "Thanks, mom!"

Mick groaned as the three left after the mother had cut him a check. The last hour had been more aggravating than his entire life.

Oh well... at least he could sell the security camera footage to the Fox network.

* * *

Frankie swooped in towards her room's window (she left it open these days so she could slip in and out of the house easily), vaguely aware that something was off. There was... a presence. She could feel it. Quietly, she swooped in, landing gracefully.

"I know you're there," she said. "Show yourself."

"Well done," the woman said, stepping out from the closet. She looked to be in her mid-thirties, attractive in a severe way, with black hair tied tightly back, and a black uniform. "I'll cut to the chase. My name is Lieutenant Perez, and I'm with the Department of Paranormal Investigations."

"Crap. I was worried about this," groaned Frankie. "Look... I know my rights. I'm an American citizen. You can't arrest me just for growing a fur coat and extra body parts. So... I'm not going anywhere without a lawyer."

"You're mistaken , Ms. Foster," Perez replied, evenly. "You're not under arrest. I'm actually here to offer you a position within our organization."

"You're what? Look... I'm flattered, but I'm pretty happy with my current job."

"You wouldn't be full time... more of a consultant. We'd call on you when we need you. And, well... we're prepared to offer you a sizeable incentive to join." The woman (pulled out a checkbook and jotted down a number. "For starters, a little signing bonus."

Frankie's eyes widened. "This... is a 'little' signing bonus."

"I can go higher, if you need."

"Okay," the demon-girl said. "I think we can work something out here."

* * *

_Coming up next: Frankie gets her first assignment from the DPI, which leads to a world full of monsters and demons, and only one girl can see 'em. _


	6. Orchid Bay Confidential

_Orchid Bay City_

_Nov. 9, 2005_

"Careful with that, you ignoramus!" the cult leader exhorted as his minion gingerly sprinkled the dust upon the tiled floor. "If you get any of that outside the lines, the ritual won't work at all! Jeez... haven't any of you been in an unholy ritual before?"

"Ah, shaddap," his lackey replied dismissively. "Stuff's a buncha hooey anyway... I mean, resurrecting an ancient evil?"

"Well, yeah, Bob," the leader replied. "That's the kind of thing cults do. Why'd you join anyway?""

"I'm balding, okay? I wanted to have an excuse to shave my head."

"You're stupid."

"Whatever. Your stupid sand's on the floor now. I'm outta here." The cultist left, in a huff.

"Fine! I don't need you! You're a big stupid jerk and I hate you!" The leader (by now, a leader without anyone to lead) began lighting the candles needed. Soon, he stood, holding the gem above the pile of dust.

"Oh, great one," he began, "I summon you once again, to do my bidding. The Emerald of Osiris compels it!"

The gem began to pulse with light. Slowly, the pile of dust began to flow together, taking the shape of a man. Bandages, seemingly woven from the air around, wrapped the figure from head to toe. Within the folds, eyes and teeth solidified.

"Well, now," the mummy said, "bury me with Roy Rogers an' call me Trigger! The Emerald of Osiris! If that don't beat all! Ooo-ee, th'things I could do with this!"

"O, great and mighty Kohmen-Getit... grant me the wealth and power I desire!"

"Now, hold on, there, pardner... it don't quite work that way." The resurrected mummy leaned against the wall of the makeshift temple... actually, an abandoned subway station. "Y'all can only bring me back with that there emerald... it don't tell me what to do or nothin'." He snatched it away from the confused cultist. "'Course, when I use it... it makes me more powerful'n Texas chili on a hot summer day."

With a nod, he channeled the energy of the emerald. The air around him began to reweave into a leather vest, chaps, and a ten-gallon hat.

"Well, now, that's more like it. An y'all could use a new look yourself, hombre."

The cult leader's eyes widened in fear as Khomen-Getit turned the power of the emerald on him...

* * *

_Somewhere in the Pacific Ocean_

Frankie checked her reflection in her quarters' mirror. The DPI uniform fit perfectly... as it was intended to. The black fabric hugged her unique curves, while still giving her plenty of mobility. It fit around her wings and tails perfectly, and even came with special boots that were designed for her hooved feet. There was a mask too, with holes for her horns and three-lensed goggles.

The quarters they had provided for her were amazing... her suite had three whole rooms, plus a full bath. She'd been provided with an HDTV and satellite-cable, a state-of the-art computer, and a kitchenette. She'd been given access to all of the HQ's recreation facilities as well, including the gameroom, health club, pool, library, and commissary. And the salary they were offering... they must have really wanted to keep her.

There was a knock at the door. _Duty calls, _Frankie thought with a sigh. "C'mon in," she said.

Lieutenant Melissa Perez, her superior, admitted herself. "I see you've settled in. You look pretty sharp in the uniform. Ready to put it to use?"

"I guess so," Frankie conceded. "What's my assignment?"

"Commander Schuyler will be giving you your briefing. I'm just delivering you today."

Perez led Frankie through the labyrinthine hallways of DPI HQ.

"You're not the only 'exotic' on our payroll, Ms. Foster," the lieutenant informed her as they walked. "We have lots of experience designing non-standard uniforms." In illustration of her comment, a pair of agents passed by. One was an immense male, with dark blue skin and heavy sideburns, and, like Frankie, hooves, horns, and a tail. The other was tall, spindly, and red, with enormous black eyes. "'Captain Hades' and 'Homer Erectus'," she said by way of introduction.

"Hi," Frankie said, waving. "Does everyone get some kind of cute code name?"

"Do you want one?" asked Perez.

"Actually... I think it'd be pretty cool."

"Okay... you'll be Agent Troika. Since you have three eyes, three tails, and three-"

"Okay, okay... I understand the significance of my codename."

The two finally arrived at the commander's office. "Ready to meet your boss?" asked Perez.

"I guess so," Frankie replied.

* * *

The Director's office was a Spartan affair. There were no personal items in evidence anywhere, just a desk, several chairs, a computer, a phone, and a viewscreen that took up one of the walls.

The Director himself was a man in his late forties, possibly early fifties. He was built like a career soldier, tall and muscled with a chiseled jaw, flinty grey eyes, and brown hair graying at the temples. In fact, he was an eyepatch away from being Nick Fury.

"Ms. Foster," he acknowledged, extending a hand to take Frankie's. "Commander Richard Schuyler."

"Hello, sir," Frankie responded.

"You've gotten settled, I assume?" the Director asked.

"Yes, sir."

"At ease, Ms. Foster. You're an independent consultant, not a soldier. Please, take a seat."

Frankie carefully lowered herself into one of the available chairs. Amazingly, the chair reshaped itself, changing to fit her body.

"Intelligent molecules," the Director said in what Frankie assume was an explanation. "Now, as to your first assignment... what do you know about Orchid Bay City?"

"Um... it's on the West Coast, they still have cable cars, their hockey team got to the playoffs last year but choked in Game 7..."

"Did you know that it's also a center of mystic activity?" the Director asked.

"...excuse me?"

"Orchid Bay is located at a nexus of a number of mystical realms. The dimensional barrier there is so weak that mystical creatures can actually travel between realms at will. There are, literally, thousands of supernatural entities walking the streets of Orchid Bay at any given moment."

"Uh, okay," asked Frankie, "but... if there were monsters all over the place, wouldn't there be some kind of news about it?"

"That's where the Veil comes in. Hundreds of years ago, a group of powerful wizards cast a spell to block normal human beings from perceiving any kind of mystic activity. There are very few humans capable of seeing past the veil."

"Wait... if normal people can't see anything, how did you find out."

"One of our agents was visiting the city when he stumbled into a disruption in the veil. It scarred him, both physically and mentally. From that moment on, he became obsessed with penetrating the veil. After he gouged out his own eye and replaced it with a mystic artifact, we had no choice but to dismiss him."

_I can't believe I'm listening to this stuff, _Frankie thought. _He's talking about this crazy mystical crap and I'm sitting in an intelligent chair and I should just walk away right now._

"So... what's my part in this?"

"I mentioned that certain rare people can see through the veil. In particular, the _Te Xuan Ze. _A human charged with the task of protecting the balance between the human and magic worlds. Now... this is where you come in. We need you to observe the _Te Xuan Ze's_ activities and report back to us. Our intel suggests that the current _Te Xuan Ze_ is a man named Basil Lee. Your mystic nature should render you invisible to human detection."

"What about detection by Lee? I'm not exactly made to blend in with the crowd."

"Your suit is designed with stealth capabilities. It's render you virtually invisible... well, except for your wings. Those you'll have to be careful with."

"And... why am I doing this?"

"We need information on the _Te Xuan Ze's_ activities and methods. You'll gather said information and relay it back to us, and we'll decide whether you will take further action."

"What do you mean by further action?" asked Frankie, beginning to become a bit annoyed with the secrecy.

"You'll know as soon as we do," the Director replied.

_Walk away. Right now._

"When do you need me to start?"

* * *

"Frankie!" Bloo called as he wandered through the hallways of Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends. "Some marshmallow fluff and chocolate syrup got all over the kitchen floors and walls somehow with absolutely no help from me!"

Now, where was she? Bloo hadn't seen her in days. It was...

"Hey, there you are!" Sure enough, the fur-covered housekeeper was vacuuming floors on the mezzanine level. "Frankie, the kitchen got all messed up by itself and..."

"Sssh!" The girl whirled. "You'll blow my cover!"

"Frankie..." Bloo asked, confused... "since when did you have a mustache?"

"Wha... oh, drat! I thought I had her face right!" In a poof of smoke, "Frankie" disappeared, replaced with a "Smiley"-headed stick figure. "That's just great, now I have to memorize her look all over again!"

"Cloney?"

"Yeah... Frankie's paying me a thousand bucks to impersonate her for a week. It's kinda exhausting but, hey, a thousand bucks is a thousand bucks, right?"

"You're getting a thousand bucks for this? Awww... I could've done it easy!"

"Yeah, you coulda used your shapeshifting powers to... oh, wait, _I_ have shapeshifting powers, not you." He hurried off.

"I can SO do Frankie." Bloo mumbled to himself, as he traveled back to the door to await Mac. "Now, when's he gonna get here?"

His wait was rewarded with a frantic thumping on the door. When he opened it, Mac dashed inside. "Thank goodness," he gasped. "They almost had me."

"Who?" Bloo asked, opening the door again.

"Bloo, no!"

A stampede of girls thundered towards the opened door. "There he is!" screamed one.

"Grab him!" yelled another, as Mac slammed the door shut again.

"Mac, why do those girls want you?"

"It's horrible! They... they want to CUDDLE me!"

"Mac, you DOG!" Bloo said admiringly, yanking the door open. "He's in here, ladies!"

"AGGH!" screamed Mac as he bolted from the amorous mob. "Why, Bloo:

"You'll thank me!" he called after. "Ah... young love."

* * *

Frankie perched on the rooftop, across the street from a typical office building, a pair of custom "trinoculars" pressed to her eyes.

This was proving to be the most boring afternoon of her life, rivaling that day that Mr. Herriman had made her make sure that all the faucet knobs in the house were aligned so they pointed to 2 and 10-o'clock. So far, Basil Lee had had absolutely no contact with ANY hideous underworld creatures.

...well, okay, there'd been some lawyers, but they only counted in theory.

As the day came to a close, Frankie followed Mr. Lee home. Maybe his _Te Xuan Ze _gig was a night thing. It wasn't like there was a lot written about "things that go bump in the late evening", after all.

She set down on the roof of the Lee home. It looked pretty typical... husband, wife, two-point-five kids, a dog... there seemed to be no sign that anything was abnormal.

And yet... Frankie's Spidey-sense was tingling.

Slipping her trinocs back into the bag, Frankie pulls on her hood and set the lenses to infra-red, and her earpieces to High. She'd be able to hear anything going on in the house.

An hour of thoroughly boring dinner conversation later, she was no closer to getting any useful information. Afterwards, Basil and his wife engaged in thoroughly boring after-dinner conversation.

Nossir... there was NOTHING here that suggested that Basil Lee was a mystic warrior.

It was time to cut her losses and head home. She moved to switch off her recorder when...

"_Yeah... there we go. That Black Dragon should be guarding the Stone of Dalactos."_

The son. Of course. Now, THAT, was more like it. She switched her view in the direction of his voice and turned up the power on her lenses. _Now, c'mon... show me a..._

_...video game._

The son wasn't a mystic warrior. He HAD, however, gotten to a section of Last Legend XIII that she'd never seen. _Mental note... check out that cave sometime, _she told herself.

Yeah... this was a bust. She was out of here.

* * *

Juniper Lee plowed through the mammoth science text as if it was a jungle... which have well been the case.

She'd felt strangely uneasy all night, as if there was a presence prying into her life. Her bracelet hadn't gone off, though, so there wasn't anything actual going on.

Not that she'd mind right now. There wasn't anything more boring than re-learning the same exact physics lesson she'd learned in fifth grade. Besides, these texts never took into account any of the laws of thaumodynics, e.g. the physics of sentient floating jewels, flaming ice creatures, etc.

It was hard to look at the world as normal when you knew it was so much more.

She groaned. "Maybe just a quick patrol, Monroe?"

The pug sniffed. "Lass, ye don't get a night off that often... me, I'm plannin' ta enjoy it."

"Aw, c'mon... it'll be fun. It's a nice night, skies're clear, Ray-Ray's nowhere to be found..."

"No thanks. I've a full night a' relaxin' ahead an' I dinna ant to hear any-"

A strange pulsing noise interrupted Monroe's brogue-laden reply. Its source was the bracelet on June's left wrist. The sound signified an imbalance somewhere in the fragile coexistence of the magical and the mundane. And now, it would fall to June to resolve it.

June was the _Te Xuan Ze, _a position that had been passed down through her family for generations. She alone was expected to make sure the worlds of magic and normality never encroached upon each other.

Most of the time, it was a really, really annoying job... of course, most of the time, her brother was tagging along.

"Huh... looks like there's some kind of disturbance building downtown. A pyramid just... appeared out of nowhere. C'mon, Monroe... we've got a case!"

"Och, lass... I was jus' getting' comfy!"

"Well, gosh, I'm sure it'll be so exhausting for you, what with your strenuous task of standing there on the sidelines and making sarcastic comments."

"Sarcasm is VERY demanding, I'll have you-" He was cut off by June hefting him. "Hey!" he complained, "This is really undignified!"

"You survived that purple sweater Aunt Thelma gave you, you'll survive this," June replied dismissively as she leapt out the window.

* * *

Frankie was about to take off for home when she saw the girl leap out the window.

_Of course, _she told herself. _I was so busy checking on the men, I completely ignored the daughter. And it looks like she's on her way somewhere in a big hurry._

Leaping across rooftops (flying would've made her wings too visible), Frankie tracked the girl until she reached downtown, wondering what the big emergency was.

The big emergency turned out to be a large Egyptian-style pyramid downtown. Frankie assumed that it wasn't supposed to be there. There was a sign over the door. Frankie turned up the magnification on her lenses. It read...

* * *

"...Pizza Pyramid?"

"That doesna' sound like the end o' the world to me," Monroe replied. "It sounds... kinda promising, in fact."

"Promising or not, according to my bracelet, this is where the magical disturbance is." She set Monroe down. "Hold tight... we're going in."

She kicked in the doors, braced for anything... anything except a crowded theme restaurant for kids. The place was huge, with everything you'd expect... a ball pen for the kiddies, rows of arcade games, skee-ball and other skill games, and the tantalizing smell of pizza wafting around. This place seemed to have an Egyptian theme to go along with the architecture... hieroglyphics on the walls, tables shaped like sarcophagi, and employees dressed as creatures straight out of Egyptian mythology, such as eagles, crocodiles, jackals, and scarabs.

"There's still something not right about this," June muttered under her breath.

"Aye," Monroe answered, "ye havena' ordered me anythin' yet!"

"No, I mean... doesn't this seem odd?"

"Oh, right, all these people enjoyin' themselves... it's a bleedin' horror is what it is! Ye'd better fetch me some essence of mozzarella so I can exorcize the demons."

June groaned. Monroe usually didn't think with his stomach, but June'd put him on a diet. Now the smell of pepperoni was getting to him... and June had to admit, she didn't blame him.

Still, June's Spidey-sense was going off like crazy. She wondered if it was connected at all to the feeling she'd had all the way over that she was being followed. A number of times, she thought she'd seen something out of the corner of her eye, but when she glanced in that direction, there had been nothing there... except for one time, when she thought she'd seen a pink bird wing. It was gone a minute later, though, and she convinced herself it was just a trick of the light.

And then, June realized just what the problem was... the staff's costumes looked a little TOO good. From the tiny ripple in the fur of the jackal-headed guy's arms, to the way the light glinted off a beetle-costumed waitress's carapace, the costumes were far too authentic for such an establishment.

The insectoid had just dropped off a pie for the table near the kitchen, and was now retreating through the back door. June was preparing to follow her when she heard a perky high-pitched voice calling her name. "June!" She whirled to see her two best friends entering the restaurant. The speaker, Jody Irwin, was a pigtailed blonde whose every cell seemed saturated with cheerfulness. In direct contrast was her other best friend, Ophelia LeBeau, who was instantly recognizable anywhere thanks to her goth-punk wardrobe and her spiky fuchsia-and-violet hair. Whereas Jody was almost supernaturally sweet, Ophelia's attitude definitely tended towards the sour end of the spectrum.

"Uh, hi..." June stammered, caught offguard.

"Isn't this place the coolest?" gushed Jody.

"Okay, like, first, these places only exist to get kids to act incredibly whiny so their parents'll drag them here to shut them up, second, they totally screw over their workers by paying them next to nothing while making them wear humiliating outfits, third, they burn down something like fifty acres of rainforest every day and... No way! They have Goth Fighter 3!" Dropping her tirade, Ophelia made a beeline for the video game.

"I knew she'd love it," Jody said smiling. "So... how'd you find this place?"

"Oh, word of mouth... or something." June answered. "I, uh, have to go... place."

"Okey-dokey!" chirped Jody.

Scurrying away from her overly-cheery friend, June once again followed one of the waitresses. Slipping through the door after her, she found herself in a bustling kitchen, anthropomorphic staff rushing to and fro preparing the fare to be served.

And overseeing it all...

"Well, jump on my couch an' call me Oprah! If'n it ain't li'l ol; Juniper Lee!"

...was a mummy in cowboy gear.

"Skeeter? Aren't you supposed to be dust?"

"I'm like a Timex, darlin', I take a lickin' an' keep on tickin'. Anyway, don't you wanna hear my plan? Oh, an' don't try runnin', missy... you ain't goin' nowhere."

On cue, some of the burlier creatures moved to cut off her escape. June was reasonably sure she could take them, but it would probably be a good idea to find out what Skeeter was up to this time. "Yeah, I'd kind of like to hear this," she responded. "I mean, food service AGAIN? Please, tell me you have a new angle."

"Well, I'll tell you what. I'm offerin' you an in on the ground floor. See this here pizza my boys n' gals're makin'? It's gonna gimme a big boost in employees! Once those poor suckers finish their first slice of my pizza, they're gonna be transformed into handsome fellas like these folks right here!" He patted a hippo-woman working the oven on the shoulder. "Ain't they adorable?"

"Okay," June said, "I think I'll be kicking your butt now."

She charged at the Mummy, but two of the jackal-men moved to cut her off, much faster than anything had a right to. They grabbed her, displaying strength that was a match for their annoying speed. "Sorry, young'un, but y'all ain't getting' away. It's pizza time!"

* * *

"Yay, the pizza's here!" squealed Jody.

"Not now!" hushed Ophelia. "I'm on the final boss and I'm about to..." She froze as her polygon avatar shattered, leaving only the words "GAME OVER" on the screen. "ARRRRGH!" she screamed. "I was so CLOSE! Look at this... they don't even give you a continue! What kind of game doesn't give you a continue?"

"Maybe a slice of pizza'll calm those jangly nerves," suggested Jody.

Ophelia groaned. "You're lucky I'm hungry and that you paid for the pizza," she muttered, claiming a slice.

"I wonder where June went off to," Jody mused, biting into her own segment.

"Probably the bathroom. Hey... does your slice taste a little weird?"

"I bet it's tarragon. That's what usually tastes funny. Huh... do you feel itchy?"

* * *

Frankie perched on the roof, watching through the skylight. The Lee girl had spoken to two girls, then snuck into the back room and beyond Frankie's field of vision. Her lenses weren't able to penetrate whatever they'd made the roof out of.

_It'd be nice if I actually had X-Ray vision of my own, _thought Frankie as she continued to wait. So far, she'd seen nothing unusual, other than the oddly realistic costumes the staff was wearing.

_Maybe there's nothing going on here_, Frankie thought. She watched as the customers began to eat. Her stomachs growled, rudely reminding her it had been over a day since she'd eaten.

_Maybe I can sneak in, grab a slice... I'm invisible to all these people, right? They'd never notice. Or would that count as unwarranted interference?_

She continued to watch, her stomachs growing more insistent on her sneaking a piece. She was on the verge of giving in when suddenly, everyone doubled over and began to glow, as if some force had gripped them.

_Uh oh... maybe it's just as well I didn't get dinner.

* * *

_

"Well, now," said Skeeter as the grunts of the customers filtered in to the back room, "sounds like showtime! Let's go get us a look, all right?"

On command, the two jackal-men hoisted June, kicking and screaming between them, and dragged her through the double-doors, followed by the grinning hillbilly mummy.

"Okay, bandage-butt!" demanded June, "What're you doing to them?"

"It's like I said, li'l lady... expandin' the workforce! Jus' a li'l somethin' I slipped into the pizza... watch an' be amazed!"

Incapable of squirming free, June was forced to watch as the customers slowly began to change, growing fur, feathers, scales, tails, horns, what have you... each one became an anthropomorphic version of one of Egypt's sacred animals: eagles, jackals, rams, cattle, beetles, snakes, alligators... the list went on and on.

Her eyes drifted over to Jody and Ophelia. The two were sprouting tawny fur all over their bodies... claws sprung from their fingers and burst through the toes of their boots... long, fur-tufted tails grew from their hindquarters, and wings with multicolored feathers blossomed from their backs. Their ears migrated to the top of their heads, and their faces developed feline eyes and muzzles. Her best friends were now two fine examples of humanoid sphinxes.

"Well, now! I reckon I'm a better chef than I thought! An' now... here comes the best part!"

As one, all the transformed customers stood... their eyes glowing, their faces devoid of emotion, as if in a trance.

"Y'like it? Mind control!" cackled Skeeter. "Yeah, I tried the whole 'zombie labor' thing but y'know, the smell's awful. I mean, I don't have a nose m'self anymore but ya gotta think of the customers. An' customers love cuddly animal mascots! Plus, mind control means I don't gotta pay 'em or give 'em benefits. I'll be rakin' in the dough, an' I ain't just talkin' pizza dough!"

June squirmed even harder. _Maybe... maybe Monroe'll be able to get help..._

"Oh, an' we got yer li' puppy-dog, too, so don't even think you're gonna get any help."

_Great, just great, _thought June.

Unnoticed to all, two of the transformed customers had NOT been ensnared by mind-control.

But that's not important yet.

* * *

Frankie watched the scene unfold below.

_Screw unwarranted interference. I'm going in._

She slammed her hoof down on the skylight, shattering it. Wings outspread, she shut off her suit's cloaking device and dropped down.

* * *

June looked up at the strange figure dropping from the ceiling. She was clad entirely in black; she had pink-feathered wings and three tails, her mask was horned and had three goggle-lenses, and there was something odd about her legs.

"Okay, you... whatever you are... let the girl go!"

Still, help was help.

"Ma'am, you are tresspassin', an' I don't need to tell you how serious that is. So why don't y'all give me what y'owe me fer the skylight, an' we'll call it even-stevens, whatcha say?" the mummy said calmly.

"Okay," the intruder said, "I'll do that... if you let the girl go and, oh, I dunno, turn all the people back to normal? If you do that, I promise I'll talk to my boss and we'll see about getting the forms together for you to fill out so that you can..."

"On second thought," Skeeter said, "I think we'll jus' find a job for you in the kitchen... you c'n join Junie here in th'sausage-grinder."

"Ew, gross!" a voice came from the crowd. June turned her eyes in the direction of the voice.

"Jody?" she called.

The pigtailed sphinx elbowed her way through the crowd. "This is crazy!" she whined. "People are turning into animals and there's a mummy in a cowboy hat and I'm all furry! What's going on here?" she wailed.

"Okay, like, seriously, you're totally embarrassing me," her violet-haired companion deadpanned, pushing through behind her.

"You two aren't under his control?" questioned June.

"I don't DO zombie slave," Ophelia said.

"Well, actually, you did this one time, but... Oh, I am so glad you guys are normal!"

"NORMAL?" yelled Jody.

"...well, relatively." June answered.

"Well, I don't wanna be relatively, I wanna be me!"

"Oh, I don't know," Ophelia said, grinning, her tail swishing. "I kinda like being all furry and weird."

"I don't understand," muttered Skeeter, "Y'all shoulda fallen under m'spell... the second you finished the slice! Wait... you DID finish the slice, right?"

"Ew, like, no way," said Ophelia. "I picked off the mushrooms, they're gross."

"I... didn't eat the crust," Jody admitted, looking sheepish.

"Jody, don't apologize to the evil mummy," admonished June.

"Honeys, in case y'all ain't noticed, you're still outnumbered," Skeeter reminded them, "an' it ain't likely you've got a chance."

"I don't really care what's likely," June said, suddenly swinging forward, then back, slamming her feet into the creature's stomachs. The canine-headed greatures yelped in pain, letting go of the girl. She somersaulted towards her friends, landing in a protective position. "Okay, guys... you're about to get a crash course in monster fighting. Lesson one: Hit the monsters! But not too hard... they all used to be human." She turned toward the stranger in black. "You! Ninja Girl! What side are you on?"

The mystery girl touched a button on her collar. The hood dissolved, revealing a face that seemed a blend of tiger and fox, with horns and a third eye yet, but was still somehow human. "Yours. And it's Frankie."

"Okay... got any tricks we can use?"

"A few... here's one that might help. You three... cover your eyes."

Confused, the three girls did so. Concentrating, Frankie drew in every photon in the building, as she'd seen Mac do, and released it all at once, blinding everyone. "There," she said. "That'll give us an advantage."

"Great," June said. "You guys try to subdue them... I'm going for Mummy Dearest!" She leapt at the undead Egyptian hillbilly.

"Uh uh, li'l missy... it don't matter if you got me, 'cause ain't nothin' goin' back t'normal without the Emerald, and I ain't tellin' you where that is!"

June sighed and yanked off the mummy's cowboy hat, exposing the gem.

"Dang! ...I mean, gaw-ly, how'd that get there?"

"You're really not that bright, are you," June sighed, snatching the gem off his head. "Lemme guess... I destroy the jewel, you vow revenge and crumble to dust, all your magic gets reversed. Right?"

"R- ...no."

Looking almost bored, June hurled the gem down and stomped on it, shattering it into hundreds of pieces.

"You ain't seen the last o' me, Juniper L-" Skeeter managed to blurt before he once again disintegrated.

A glow enveloped all the transformed humans, who slowly reverted to normal. They stood around, looking dazed.

"Are they going to be okay?" whispered June to Monroe, who was no longer being held muzzled by an ibis-man.

"Aye, they'll most likely not remember anything. There might be an interesting dream or two, but no permanent memories."

"Good, 'cause I'd hate to have to explain all this weirdness."

"Well, you're gonna," said a deadpan voice behind her. June turned to see her friends staring at her determinedly.

"Uh, guys... what's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" whined Jody. "I was a monster, that's what's wrong. What happened there?"

Nervously, June stammered "I... I'll talk in a minute." She whispered to Monroe. "I thought you said they wouldn't remember!"

"Aye, by all accounts they shouldn't! I dinna understand what could possibly..."

"Why is your dog talking to you?" asked Ophelia, an eyebrow raised.

"It's... it's, uh, ventriloquism! I'm developing an act for the next talent show and-"

"Oh, come off it, June! There was a redneck mummy and cursed pizza, and that girl with the fur and wings is still here, even though no one seems to realize she's here... There's mega-weirdness going on here, and it's NOT the first time, judging by how you handled it."

"I, uh..."

"Lass, y'know what ye have to do," whispered the pug.

"Yeah, I do," mumbled June. She turned back towards her friends. "I'm... the _Te Xuan Ze_. It's... kind of a mystical super-hero thingy."

"June!" shouted Monroe. "Ye know I didna mean that!"

"Monroe... I said I know what _I _have to do." She continued, "Magic and monsters are real, and I keep them from infringing on the human world, and vice-versa. Humans can't see magic because, since this city's a nexus of magical activity, a group of magic elders cast a spell centuries ago to make anything magical invisible to humans."

"So... why didn't you tell us before?" asked Jody. "Didn't you trust us?"

"I kinda wasn't allowed. Technically I shouldn't even be doing it now. But... I just can't lie to you anymore."

Monroe sighed. "I guess we'll just have to-"

"No!" June interrupted. "No mind wipes! Not this time!"

"This time?" Ophelia asked, raising an eyebrow. "Okay, like, saying 'this time' implies that there was a last time."

"Well, uh," June said, "remember that time we went to the mall that night that a new CD was being released?"

"We never did that," Jody said.

"Actually... we did. But there was an incident with a witch who rode a giant fish, and, well... the Powers that Be reset time and wiped your memories. I'm really, really sorry. I swear I won't let them do it again."

"Won't let WHO do it again?" came a stern but patient voice.

_Busted, _thought June. "Uh, hi, Ah Mah. What brings you here?"

"I caught an interesting report on MNN. Something about a mummy, human-to-animal transformations, and a Valix sighting."

"What's a Valix?" asked Jody.

"Yo," waved Frankie.

"Look," June said, "I know what you're gonna say. You're gonna give me the whole Uncle Ben speech, and you're gonna say it's for my own good, and their own good, and that the worlds of magic and humanity must remain separate, and frankly, I've heard it all already and I STILL think it sucks and I am NOT going to let my friends get mindwiped again! They've BEEN targets even without my telling them! They've been possessed by ghosts and enslaved by the Sandman and magically cloned and they deserve to know!"

"June..."

"I can't lie to them anymore! It's tearing me apart every time I do it! It's driving me insane!"

"June..."

"In fact... you know what? If you're gonna erase their memories, erase MINE, too! Because I quit! You can get yourself a NEW _Te Xuan Ze_!"

"June..."

"WHAT!"

"You're making a scene. We'll discuss this back home."

"No! You're just gonna mindwipe them!"

"June... dear... this is the way it's been for millennia." Ah Mah took a deep breath. "But that doesn't mean we can't be open to new ideas."

June, smiling, silently hugged her grandmother.

"Come on, girls," Ah Mah said, "Back to my house. Tea and cookies, on me." She nodded to Frankie, who had remained silent throughout the exchange. "You too, Fuzzy. I got something for you back home."

Frankie shrugged. "Sure, why not. Uh... those aren't going to be chocolate chip cookies, are they? 'Cause I kinda have a problem..."

* * *

"So..." began Ah Mah... "You girls can somehow see magic now."

"Yeah, like, couldn't you tell by how freaked out Jody was all the way home? Seriously," answered Ophelia.

"Monsters... everywhere... all around..." muttered Jody, rocking back and forth and holding her knees.

"This kind of thing is why the veil is kept up. Imagine thousands of people reacting just like Jody. Can you imagine the chaos?"

"But the veil wasn't breached," June replied. "Nobody else saw Frankie or heard Monroe talk. Just them. I think something's given them the ability to see beyond the veil."

"Yes... that seems to be the case. But how? Tell me... have they been exposed to magic before?"

"Well, there was the time they were possessed by the ghosts of Vikings. And, once they were mentally enslaved by the Sandman. And there was the time they were magically photographed..."

"...and they were transformed into magical creatures this time? Hmmm... I think I know what happened."

"Really? What?"

"Magic overload. They've been exposed to magical phenomena so many times, they've adapted. Nothing I can do can change that now."

"Like, no way, seriously?" asked Ophelia. "We've got magic-vision?"

"Exactly. So... I guess I'm just gonna have to entrust you with the secret of the _Te Xuan Ze_. You two can keep a secret, right?"

"Okay... yeah, I can..." said Jody, still a little shaken. "Uh... do we get any other powers?"

"Sorry, none of those. At least not right now. There might be some new developments someday, though."

"Aww," Jody sighed dejectedly.

* * *

"So..." began Frankie, breaking the awkward silence. "You're a six-hundred-year-old talking dog."

"Aye. An' you're a three-eyed gazelle-fox-tiger with wings who dabbles in housekeeping and espionage. We've all got issues, lass."

"Look, no offense intended," replied Frankie.

"An' I suppose some o' yer best friends are talking dogs?" the pug replied.

"Actually, I do know a couple." She paused. What could the two of them possibly have in common?

"So... ye catch _Marooned_ last week?" asked the diminutive canine.

"Oh, yeah! Jaime's SO gonna get eaten by the monster next week!"

"Nah, he'll get away. He always does. Y'know, my theory is..."

"...that the island is really Hell and they're damned for all eternity?"

"Welll, why d'ye think the number six is all over everything?"

"Well, what's the deal with the alien writing?"

"Oh, well, I think you're supposed t'THINK it's alien writing, but it has far more in common with the hieroglyphic language of the Kralzog Demons from the Realm of Infinite Misery."

Their conversation was interrupted by the return of the others. "Guess what!" June chirped.

"No... don't tell me," the dog replied. "We're stuck with Pollyanna and Gothy McGoth."

"You're mean," pouted Jody.

"Jody and Ophelia will be allowed to retain their memories and their ability to see into the magical realm. I'll also be giving them some rudimentary training in self-defense so they'll be able to handle themselves in an emergency. As for the Magic Council, they don't have to know everything, do they?"

"Och, this has bad idea written all over it," muttered the pug.

"Now," asked Ah Mah, "Can I have a few minutes of your time, Miss Foster?"

"Sure," said Frankie with a shrug, following her into the back.

* * *

"So... how's Aggie doing?"

Frankie's eyes widened. "You know grandma?" she asked, surprised.

"Sure, sure. I helped her with the house's construction. We go way back, the two of us. After all, a lot of imaginary friends are magical in origin." She paused for a sip of tea. "In fact, we've met before. You were a baby at the time, so you probably don't remember. I must say, you've grown."

Frankie "blushed", her eyes turning all glowy. "Well... this wasn't exactly my choice. I wouldn't mind being normal again." She chewed a little on her lower lip nervously. "You... wouldn't happen to be able to do that, would you?" _Please? _she added mentally.

"Sorry... that's beyond my power. Honestly, Valix looks good on you. Like you were born for it. You're not the first, you know."

"...not the first?"

"About eighteen hundred years ago, the _Te Xuan Ze _of the era encountered one in India. Just like you, she was a young human woman before being transformed. There was a slight difference in her form, though... she had an extra set of arms. Probably a fluke. Anyway, she was being worshipped by the locals as an avatar of Vishnu, but she got sick of the adulation. The _Te Xuan Ze_ helped her move on to another magical dimension where she probably still lives today."

"Huh," Frankie managed, still processing all the information she'd just been given.

"Before she departed, she left this behind." Ah Mah rummaged around in a chest, and took out an irregularly-shaped object. "This crystal shard is what transformed her. Or, rather, triggered it." She handed the roughly diamond-shaped chunk of crystal – the same color as the one that still hung from her neck – to Frankie. "Take it... as the only Valix currently in existence on Earth, it belongs to you."

Frankie carefully and a bit gingerly took it. As soon as it was in the palm of her paw, it began to glow with an inner light. Strange markings appeared on its surface. "Never did THAT before," muttered Ah Mah.

Frankie felt an odd sense of déjà vu upon taking the crystal. She wondered if this was what they called "racial memory". She could almost get a clear picture in her mind of Asherya (deep down, she knew that had been her name), of her transformation, her life, her service to the people of her village, and their worship in return.

"Wow," she managed, still having problems verbalizing. "Thank you. Thank you so much." She hugged Ah Mah. "I feel like... like you said, that this was meant to happen. Like this isn't just what I am, but what I was always supposed to be. Not that I'd turn down being human again... but I feel more at peace with myself than ever."

"Hey, no problem at all," said the _Ex-Xuan Ze _with a smile. "Just tell Aggie not to be such a stranger. It's been way too long since our last game of racquetball."

* * *

"Let me get this straight," Perez said, fuming. "Thirty-six hours of surveillance, and THIS is all you have for us?" She shook the half-page report as if it was responsible for all the ills in the world.

"That's all I found out," said Frankie, shrugging. "I have determined, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Basil Lee is not the _Te Xuan Ze_. Which, I believe, was the purpose of the assignment, right?"

Perez groaned. "You're hiding something, Foster. I cant do anything to discipline you because, technically, you DID complete the assignment... but, I'm warning you: you're on thin ice with me."

"Whatever you say," Frankie said nonchalantly as she strode out of the briefing room. "Oh, and I won't tell anyone you're a were-dragon."

Perez froze as the tips of Frankie's tails vanished from sight. _Damn, _she thought, _how did she know that? I've NEVER told anyone... damn it, her damn telepathy... crap.

* * *

_

_That was really mean of me, _thought Frankie as she set down in front of Fosters' once again clad in her normal attire.

As she let herself in, she wondered if anyone had even realized she was gone. It HAD been a day and a half, after all. Cloney might be able to duplicate her appearance exactly, but there were subtleties that he couldn't duplicate. Surely, not everyone would be fooled...

"Ah, Miss Francis. We are still on for checkers this evening, am I correct?"

Then again... "Sure, Mr. Herriman. Just let me take care of a few things." Frankie flapped off and upwards, towards her room. After the last day or so, she was really looking forward to some peace and quiet.

"HELP!"

_Wait... was that Mac?_

Frankie flew at top speed towards the call for help, only to find something she never expected... Mac had been ensnared by a gaggle of little girls who were taking turns cuddling him.

"Frankie! Thank goodness you finally came!" gasped the eight-year-old.

"Okay girls," Frankie ordered, "Break it up. Fun's over."

"Awwww," whined the girls as they backed off from the desperate child.

"Thanks, Frankie! I was almo-"

"...'cause it's MY turn!" The cobalt-furred woman swept up her junior and squeezed him.

"No fair!" complained one ponytailed moppet.

"Hey, you had your chance," Frankie said as he carried the boy off for the night.

* * *

_Next: More revelations about the Valixes and their history. And what happens when a little girl with a VERY overactive imagination gets a load of Mac's new look?_


	7. The Power of Imagination

Chapter 7: The Power of Imagination

Wilt carefully stepped through the milling crowd of imaginary friends, balancing a large tray of brownies. Adopt-a-Thought Saturday had one again rolled around, and preparations were in full swing. Everywhere, the friends were primping, making sure they looked their best, whether covered in fur, feathers, scales, slime, or, in one case, nacho cheese.

Here and there, Mac fluttered, setting up the signs, balloons, streamers (Mr. Herriman INSISTED on streamers) and other paraphernalia. "Hey, Wilt," he said, waving.

"Hey. You seen Frankie around?"

"No... I think she's still playing with that crystal shard she picked up."

"Oh, yeah, I saw that last night. She just kinda... fingers it and stares at it."

"Yeah... I guess she sees something in it. Or something." Mac set down. "I'd better remind her to get moving."

He headed inside, his hoofbeats masking the sound of yellow clogs sneaking up behind him. And so, he was taken completely unawares when someone tackled him from behind.

"Hiiiiiiiiii, Mac!"

Mac squirmed in the grasp of his assailant, looking up into two huge eyes set in a medium-brown face, her curly black hair done up in three unruly braids that bounced around her head. Yes, Goo Barron had arrived, in her own inimitable fashion.

"Uh... hi..." Mac said, nervously. He hadn't yet told Goo about his change... she'd been away during Halloween with her archeologist parents. So how'd she even know? "How was Mexico?" he asked, forcing a change of the subject.

"It was okay, I got to explore an ancient temple an' there was a funny statue and a weird crystal but Oooh! You look really awesome. Those're such cool wings, kinda like an albatross's or maybe a red-crested booby, which is a funny name, birds really have the funniest names, why d'you think that is, other animals don't have funny names, well maybe some of them do, but not as many as birds... but I'm getting kinda off topic here..." As usual, Goo's stream-of-consciousness chatter was going in every direction but the point.

"Yeah, uh... you don't sound surprised to see me like this."

"Yeah, don't worry about that, I caught the report on Halloween on CNN, an' I thought you looked really awesome, jus' like Frankie looks really awesome, an' I wish I looked awesome like you and Frankie looked, but your color scheme's kinda dull, I mean, if I was gonna give myself fur, I'd make it magenta, 'cause that's a great name for a color, magenta, I jus' like saying magenta..."

Mac's eyes widened as the first bristles of fur began forming on Goo's skin. At first, he'd thought he was seeing things, but as they began to spread, he realized... Goo was somehow starting to undergo the same change he'd gone through.

"An' it wouldn't be plain, I'd have spots, like a leopard's, an' maybe the facial markings of a cheetah... for the hair, I'd go with purple... an' my eyes, I never knew why eyes always had to be the same color, I'd make the left one yellow an' the right one red an' the top one blue..."

As she described each of her features, they took form... her clogs shattered to reveal hooves, a tail snaked from her backside, her already large ears tapered to a point... finally, wings took shape on her back, sprouting feathers in every color of the rainbow.

"But that'd never happen, right?"

"Uh..." stammered Mac...

"Geez, Mac, you look like horns just popped outta my head or something!" Goo said, confused.

"They... kinda did. Little ones."

"Are you feeling all right?" Goo asked, scratching the furry nape of her neck. "You're talking all crazy, an' I know crazy."

"I'm serious, Goo!" Mac said. "You just... well, look in the mirror if you don't believe me!"

"Okay, fine... if you say sWHOA is that ME?" Goo exclaimed upon seeing her new reflection. "This is so COOL!"

"Yeah..." Mac said unenthusiastically, "pretty cool..."

_How did this HAPPEN?_

_-Oh, Frankie...- _Mac sent telepathically.

* * *

In her room, Frankie continued to finger the shard that the old woman had given her back in Orchid Bay City. Try as she might, she hadn't found a way to access its secrets. Occasionally, she got tiny flashes of... something. But they were vague, unclear flickers. The real secrets remained tantalizingly out of reach.

She sighed and put the shard down. Clearly, just sitting there playing with it was a waste of time. She had other things to do. There were floors to mop, meals to prepare, and... that's right, it was Saturday! The backyard was about to be choked with kids seeking friends to adopt, and things would be out of control! She had to get her tails in gear immediately.

Mentally, she reassembled the molecules of her nightie into her usual tee and skirt. No time for a shower... just a quick brush of her mane.

She was about halfway down the stairs when she got Mac's mental flash.

_-Oh, Frankie... we kinda have a pro-_

_+Ohmigosh ohmigosh ohmigosh, are you using telepathy? I gotta try that! Testing, testing, one two three... Hiiiiii, Frankie+_

The mental voice was unexpected, but instantly recognizable. _GOO!_

_+Isn't this telepathy so cool? I mean sometimes I wanna say stuff but my mouth isn't fast enough so I can't get it all out an' then my tongue gets tired an' my throat's all sore but this way I can just think an' everything I ever wanna say gets said an'+_

Frankie immediately abandoned her hooves and kicked her wings into high gear, following Goo's mental signal. If what she thought had happened had actually happened, this could be really troublesome.

When she arrived in the backyard, she found Mac talking to a brand-new, magenta-furred, purple-braided, rainbow-winged Valix.

"...look," he was saying, "I don't know how you managed to do this to yourself, but you should try to turn yourself back right now."

"Um, why would I wanna do that for? I like being like this! I like being able to fly an' having a tail an' hooves an' super depth perception and telepathic powers an' a pouch, did I show you the pouch yet? It's kinda hard to get to 'cause its under my dress..."

"Because, number one, your parents are gonna freak when they see you, and they're gonna blame me!"

"Pfft. They're fine with this. I just told them about it. With my BRAIN. My mom said that she supports me 'cause this is really self expression an' sculpting your own body is the same as sculpting clay an' stuff..."

"Goo," Frankie said, "Mac's right. You need to change back."

Goo's face contorted as she concentrated. "I don't think I can."

"But... you're the one who changed yourself in the first place!" protested Mac.

"What're you talking about? I didn't do this. Didn't you do this, cause," her voice switched to a teasing tone, "you kinda like me?"

"What!" Mac said, shocked. "I didn't..."

"I'm just joking, really, lighten up, anyway, no, I didn't do it an' I dunno how it happened, really, but I like how I turned out an' I wanna stay this way."

Frankie sighed to herself. Right now, the crystal was the least of her worries... there were way more questions that needed answering, starting with what, exactly, had just happened.

* * *

"Am I done yet, Frankie?" asked the talking screen.

"Just about, X-Ray-Jay Johnson." Frankie scanned Goo's results, comparing them to her own. She compared... the seven-chambered heart, the glowing energy-based "blood", the crystalline bones, the segmented lungs, the three stomachs, the pouch, the three undeveloped mammary glands, the branching intestines, the glands that didn't match anything known to medical science, and the five-lobed brain... the two of them were exact anatomical matches. Inside and out, through and through, Goo was a Valix.

Now, even more questions had been raised. There was no way Goo could have duplicated her internals in such excruciating detail simply by imagining it. Something else was at play here.

"Is THAT what I look like inside?" Goo asked, craning her neck over the edge of X-Ray-Jay. "Is that corkscrew thing there my liver?"

"A combination liver/pancreas, actually," corrected Frankie. "I guess this isn't just a cosmetic change. How'd you manage it?"

"I said I didn't do it!" Goo replied. "It just happened!" She stuck out her tongue, extending it to scratch a spot between her wings, then, retracting it (Frankie had been aware of this particular aspect of her transformation, but preferred not to take advantage of it... the rest of her was weird enough). "I didn't even know it happened 'til it was over!"

"But you started changing the moment you started talking about wanting to change," reminded Mac. "Maybe you did it with your subconscious imagination."

"Nah," Goo said, now hanging by her tail upside-down from one of the light-fixtures; the girl got around. "If it was my subconscious I woulda been aware of it."

"Hmmm..." Frankie said. "There's one other thing I wanna see. C'mon... it's back in my room."

Upstairs, Frankie fished the shard out of her jewelry box. So far, the shard had only lit up when touched by herself or Mac. She handed it over to Goo; sure enough, the thing lit up.

"Hey, how'd you get this?" Goo said, confused. "I thought I left it back at the temple!"

"...wait, what?" Frankie replied, equally confused.

"You know, back at the temple in Mexico."

"What temple?" asked Mac.

Goo sighed in exasperation, clearly annoyed that she was dealing with inferior intellects. "The temple in Mexico, on the Yucatan Peninsula, that I explored when me an' my parents went there last week. Inside, there was a big statue of a goddess an' this crystal-thing with these hieroglyphics was in one of its hands."

"Wait," Mac said, "didn't you tell me your crystal came from India?"

"Yeah... at least, that's where the person who gave it to me said it was from. And, when I first took it, I got a flash of another Valix's life, and it definitely looked like it was happening in India." She turned back towards the newest addition to her clan. "The statue... what'd it look like?"

"Hmm..." muttered Goo as she backstroked past them in mid-air. "Now that I think about it, she kinda looked a lot like you, but with an extra pair of arms."

"Just like the Indian Valix," Frankie interjected.

"Maybe they were the same one?" asked Mac.

"Maybe," agreed Frankie. "But, if we were both Valixes, why was she different?" She got up from the bed. "Goo, where's this temple of yours? I think I should take a look at it."

"Sorry!" Goo said, grinning. "Can't tell you!"

"Please... it's important. It could answer the question of why this happened... and if there's any way of undoing it!"

"Nuh uh! I'm not telling!" She flutterd down from the ceiling, setting herself on Frankie's shoulders and grasping hold of her horns. "Not unless you bring me an' Mac along with you!"

"I can't do that, Goo... it's way too dangerous."

"Then I guess you don't get to see the temple." Goo replied, looking like the Valix that ate the canary.

"C'mon," Mac said. "She's been in there once before, how dangerous could it be?"

"But—well... okay..." Frankie relented.

* * *

_Yucatan Peninsula_

Frankie descended through the dense jungle canopy, branches scratching her outspread wings. "Are you sure that this was where the Temple was?" she asked her small companion.

"Uh huh. I think anyway. This way!" Goo darted off deeper into the jungle.

Mac floated down beside his senior. "You know this probably won't be as easy as she thinks," he remarked.

"Yeah, but when has that ever stopped us?" replied Frankie. "Jungle's pretty thick here, I dunno how useful my wings'll be. You two are small, you shouldn't have much trouble... but it looks like I'll have to walk."

Mac nodded, and the two forged ahead, Frankie on hoof and Mac floating beside her.

The Forest was thick with insects, most of which were very intent on making a meal of the two. They were victims of many, many bug bites, but healed from them nearly instantly, so it was only a minor annoyance.

They found Goo up ahead, questioning a troop of howler monkeys. After several rounds of screeching, she said, "They say the "Ugly Cave" is that way," pointing with both finger and tail. She and the monkeys continued screeching at each other.

"You can talk to animals?" Frankie asked.

"You can't?" Goo said, confused.

"Well, I didn't KNOW I could..."

"Well, what you have to do is use telepathy to link minds so you can download his language in like a second, an' then all it really is, is trying to get the context right, 'cause it can get very confusing, 'cause the Howler Monkey word for "banana" is the same as the one for "maul my face off," an' that's a mistake you don't wanna make, let me tell you.

The three forged on now, Goo pausing to have a conversation with a tapir.

_What the heck, _thought Frankie, _Let's try it._

She scanned for another animal, linking with a jaguar dozing in a nearby tree.

"_How's it going?"_ she growled at the feline.

"_Can I eat the small ones?" _was its reply.

_Whoa. Conversation over._ Frankie hurried her charges along, eager to get far away from the hungry kitty.

They finally came upon the temple in a small clearing. It was overgrown by vines, and there didn't seem to be a way in. The only way in was blocked by an enormous boulder that seemed beyond even Frankie's ability to budge it.

"Are you sure this is the right one?" Frankie asked of Goo. "How'd you get in?"

"Oh, right," answered Goo. "I went through the hole in the side. Follow me!" She darted off.

* * *

"Huh." Goo muttered, measuring herself against the gap. "It was bigger last week."

"No," Mac corrected. "You were smaller."

On the north side of the temple, there was a small gap in the wall where a small child could squeeze through. However, Goo's wings made in considerably harder for her to slip through now.

"Well, so much for that," Mac said. "I guess we're not getting in."

"I don't see why not," Frankie said. "The three of us working together are probably strong enough to get some more of these blocks out."

And so, the three got to widening the hole. After a few hours, they had finally widened it enough for even Frankie to wriggle through if she folded her wings. Soon, they found themselves in a huge chamber, filled with statuary.

"Are we in, Goo?" Frankie asked.

"Pfft, no, there's more than this. There's a secret entrance to hidden catacombs somewhere in this room, you just have to step on the right floor tiles in the right order and if you don't, the walls shoot needles filled with deadly poison."

Mac's eyes widened in horror. "And you were just playing around in here?"

"Well, DUH, obviously I didn't trigger the poison needles, 'cause I'm alive, an' anyway it was really easy to guess the right tiles..." Before the others could stop her, she was hopscotching across the floor. "Tada!" she said, landing on the last one. Across from her, a larger floor panel slid open, revealing a staircase. "C'mon!"

The three drifted down the stairs and found themselves in a series of labyrinthine passageways. "This way!" insisted Goo, leading them on a twisty path through the tunnels.

At the end, they found, not a doorway, but a hole. "My first time down I used the rope in my backpack but this time we don't need it," Goo said, leaping downward, her wings slowing her descent.

They found themselves in another labyrinth, only, this time much darker. "How much more of this is there?" asked Frankie, exasperated.

"This is the last maze, promise!" answered Goo, leading them ahead. Frankie was amazed at how quickly Goo had adapted to her transformation... already, she was more nimble on her hooves than Frankie had been for weeks after her own change. And she was flying like a pro after only a few hours of practice.

Finally, the three found themselves in front of an ornate door.

Frankie stared at the figure engraved on it; she'd had flashes of one like it, but this one was there, tangible, able to be examined at leisure. This was not the same figure from her flashes, though; this one was dressed in the manner of the Mayans that once inhabited the area. Other than that, she could have passed for the other. Or, indeed, for Frankie herself, except for the matter of having a second pair of arms.

Frankie found herself reaching for a block to the left of the door and pushing it in. The door slid open before her.

Inside was a chamber even more massive and ornate than the one on the top level. The centerpiece of this room was a huge, detailed statue of the creature on the door.

Frankie floated upward to take a closer look. She could see, now, this was a very different figure from herself... its fur was a dark maroon, its "mane" and wings fire-orange, and its eyes deep violet. There were other differences... besides the obvious difference of the extra arms, this one had a second pair of horns that grew from the top of her head and curved sharply backward. In addition, each of the hands had a second thumb, growing out of what would normally be the "pinky" side of the hand. Its upper-right hand held a spear, and its upper left a shield.

Pondering the various odd differences between the figure and herself, her eye was drawn to the object in its lower-left hand. It was a dark-blue crystal, just as Goo had said. It looked to be the same shape as the one she'd already had, a rough diamond, and it, too, had hieroglyphs.

She reached for the crystal, but Mac yelled "No! These things are always booby-trapped! If you take that crystal, a huge boulder's gonna fall and chase us down a long hallway!"

"Aw, c'mon... you've seen way too many movies, Mac," Frankie said. "Besides... I figure that, as the first Valix in thousands of years, I'm entitled to Valix artifacts. Jasmine said as much when she gave me the first shard."

She scooped up the crystal and fluttered down toward the others. "Is that piece giving you any flashes?" asked Mac.

"Not yet," Frankie answered. "I guess they're not always auto-" She stopped. A grinding noise was coming from the statue. She looked up to see the hand that the crystal had been in slowly rising.

"Here it comes," Mac said nervously. "Let's get out of here!"

But instead of the boulder of Mac's imaginary boobytrap rolling, out, the statue itself began to move. It shifted to a fighting stance, its spear poised to strike.

"_ONLY ONE OF v'HALYXX BLOOD IS WORTHY TO RECEIVE THE FRAGMENT," _bellowed the statue. _"COME FORWARD, AND PROVE YOUR MERIT."_

Oddly compelled, Frankie stepped before the monolith.

"_STATE YOUR NAME,"_ the statue demanded.

"Frankie Foster," replied the smaller of the two adult Valixes.

"_YOU ARE OF v'HALYXX STOCK," _the statue said. _"THOUGH INCOMPLETE. AND NOT FROM BIRTH. HOW DO YOU COME BY YOUR FORM?"_

"I was accidentally transformed. By this crystal," Frankie replied, exposing the gem.

"_YOUR GEM IS BUT A SHARD OF THE TRUE HEART, AND DAMAGED AS WELL. ONLY THE TRUE HEART CAN COMPLETE YOUR METAMORPHOSIS."_

"True Heart?" asked Frankie.

"_THE TRUE HEART IS MANY THINGS... TEACHER, HEALER, POWER SOURCE. ONLY WITH ALL FRAGMENTS ASSEMBLED CAN IT SERVE ITS FUNCTION. WHEN IT HAS BEEN ASSEMBLED, ALL QUESTIONS SHALL BE ANSWERED."_

"Where are these fragments?"

"_THIS I CANNOT TELL YOU. IF YOU ARE A TRUE DAUGHTER OF THE v'HALYXX, THEN YOU WILL FIND THEM."_

With that, the statue shut down. "Well, that told me almost nothing. We don't know how many other shards there are, where they can be found, how to assemble them, or what they do," complained Frankie.

"Did you know you weren't talking in English? You were talking in a whole different language that sounded kinda like a cross between Italian an' Japanese with a little Navajo thrown in, or maybe it was Ashanti crossed with Russian an' Farsi, an' like I couldn't really understand any of it, cause to me it all sounded like blah blah blah blah blah..."

"Let's just get this piece home, and we'll continue from there," Mac advised.

* * *

The three Valixes set down in the Fosters' back yard. Imaginary friends were busy clearing away the detritus from Adopt-a-Thought Saturday; the three of them had managed to miss the entire event.

"The badger's really gonna be steamed when he gets a hold of us," Goo said dolefully.

"I don't know," replied Frankie, "Herriman's a micromanager. He used to handle every aspect of Adopt-a-Thought Saturday, and I think he actually preferred it that way."

"At least we can help with the cleanup," Mac suggested, atomizing some of the trash.

"Agreed," Frankie said, and the three pitched in until the backyard was clear. "There," Frankie said when they were done. "With any luck, Herriman won't have no-"

"MISS FRANCIS!" bellowed an upper-crusty British voice. A large, irate rabbit in a waistcoat, monocle, and top hat hopped out. "Your absence this afternoon was most vexing! In penance for your di- GOOD HEAVENS, THEY'RE MULTIPLYING!" His eye had fallen on the latest member of the clan.

"Hiiiiiiii, badger!" trilled the magenta-furred girl. "I got changed into a Valix just like Frankie did a while ago and Mac did less of a while ago and I dunno how it happened but none of us did it an' none of us know how it happened so don't ask 'cause we don't know, okay?"

"Wait," said Herriman measuredly. "Let me see if I have determined the situation correctly. Miss Goo, already rambunctious, irrepressible... let's face it, hyperactive... has been transformed into a mystical creature of potentially enormous power. Yes. Very well then."

He fainted dead away.

"I really, REALLY shouldn't find this funny," Frankie said, barely repressing a giggle.

* * *

After Herriman had been roused, and had decided that a stiff carrot toddy and a long night's rest were required before this situation could be processed, the three retreated to Frankie's room.

"Okay," Frankie said, removing the shard from her pouch, "Let's have a look at this thing."

"Hey," Mac said, "The glyphs are glowing!"

"That's really weird, 'cause they didn't glow before, maybe we should look at the other piece now an' see if it's also glowing, huh?" Goo suggested.

"All right," Frankie said, opening the drawer in which she'd been keeping it. Suddenly, the shard she was already holding began to heat up. "Whoa!" she said, losing her grip on it.

Instead of falling, though, the shard simply... floated there. As they all stared, they were treated to an even odder sight as the shard in the drawer floated upward and over to the one already floating. The two touched, and there was a blinding flash of light. When it cleared, the two shards, fused together, fell to the ground.

"Again... whoa." Frankie said, picking it up. The two shards had combined to form a single shape, like two mountains overlapping each other.

"Weird," commented Mac. "Is it any different?"

Frankie fingered the crystalline mass. "It doesn't seem to be," she said.

"Oooh! Lemme take a look!" half-asked, half-demanded Goo, grabbing it.

"Sure. Go ahead," replied Frankie semi-sarcastically.

Goo fiddled with the item. As she tapped each glyph, it glowed for a moment, then faded. "I think I'm onto something here, 'cause some of 'em glow longer than the other ones, although maybe it's which finger does the touching or for how long, anyway I bet you have to do it in some kind of order or sequence, or maybe say some kinda magic words like 'abracapocus' or 'hocuscadabra' or 'geya tem fai t'harmagai'..."

The fused shards suddenly lit up, all the glyphs blinking in sequence. _"Performing self-diagnostic,"_ it said, in that same odd language that Frankie had found herself speaking in earlier.

"You did it!" Frankie said, hugging Goo. "How did you know those words would activate it?"

Goo shrugged. "They kinda just jumped into my head from nowhere, cause I know I never heard any words like those, not in any language anywhere, but I just know them, an' I know 'geya' means 'activate' an' the rest is a password but I don't know how I know that, I just kinda do..." She smiled up at her elder.

"_Self-diagnostic completed," _the device said. _"Core Fragment 3 not found. Power Module not found. Functionality of True Heart severely limited."_

"What CAN you do?" asked Frankie, again slipping into the Valix native tongue.

"_Accessing..." _the Heart said. _"List of available functions follows. v'Halyxx historical database. v'Halyxx biological database. v'Hallyx cultural database. Note: Some information may not be available without Core Fragment 3. Visual playback not possible without Power Module."_

"Whoa, jackpot!" Frankie said to the others. "Maybe now we'll get some answers!" She turned back to the Heart. "Okay... so, first question: What are the v'Halyxx?"

"_Accessing... v'Halyxx: native of planet Halyxxin."_

"Ohmigosh ohmigosh ohmigosh we're ALIENS?" asked an incredulous Goo.

"I thought you didn't understand the language," Frankie said, her eyebrow rising.

"Yeah, I didn't, at least I thought I didn't, but now I can!"

The Heart continued._ "The v'Halyxx were an ancient and long-lived race, and had made great advances in both science and magic, blending the two into a single discipline known as technomancy. They achieved great strides in the arts, with distinction in the field of humor. The v'Halyxx were governed by the Council, members of which were elected every hundred years by telepathic consensus. Head of state was the Unarch, who was elected separately on a one-hundred-fifty year cycle. v'Halyxx life expectancy was roughly five hundred thousand years. The population of the planet, at its peak, was approximately 40 million. Population growth was extremely slow, as females usually did not choose to have children until well over the age of 100,000, and no more than two or three. v'Halyxx mate for life, usually in groups of up to eight. Most adult v'Halyxx were bisexual-"_

"Whoa, end playback! Little too much info there..." Frankie said, nervously.

"What's the big problem?" asked Mac. "My aunt's married to a girl, so I know it's okay."

_Heh. And we're so worried about the younger generation, They've got it more together than we do. _"Okay, um... tell me about v'Halyxx biology."

"_Accessing... warning, power level critical... v'Halyxx are an oviparous, marsupial, mammalian, bipedal, tetramandial race. v'halyxx have prehensile hands, dual opposable thumbs, digitrade, ungulate legs, triocular vision, avian wings, and regenerative physiology. Infants are hatched blind, deaf, furless, wingless, and tailless, and develop further within the parent's marsupium. Children are weaned at two and reach full maturity at 20. v'Halyxx are capable of regenerating from crippling damage, as long as their heads are intact. v'Halyxx are omnivorous, though many prefer a vegetarian diet... power at 0.01, shutdown sequence initated."_

With that, the Heart went dark once again. Frankie tried tapping glyphs again, but they would no longer light up. "Well, I guess that's all we're getting out of this thing, until we find the other two modules. Wherever those are."

"It's cool!" Mac said, eagerly. "We learned way more than we knew! Like that we're aliens, not demons, and there's a whole planet like us out there somewhere..."

"Yeah, Frankie!" gushed Goo. "An' I bet that they're probably hidden on the planet somewhere secretly watching humanity so that we don't blow ourselves up and we can get to the stars one day and meet all kinds of aliens except that they're right here already and we're already them kinda only not quite..."

"I guess you're right," Frankie said. "Still, I wouldn't mind getting my paws on those other fragments. I have a feeling that once we get those, we'll have all the answers we're looking for."

_And maybe, just maybe, _she added, _some way of making ourselves normal again._

_NEXT: Rogue agents of the DPI want Mac and Goo... and not for "Take Your Species-Mates to Work Day"! Can Frankie and Melissa uncover the dark side of their organization in time to save them?_


End file.
